一絲思

In ancient Greece, Socrates was considered to be a wise man, holding knowledge in high esteem.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know
what I just heard about your friend?”
“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like
you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”
“Triple Filter?”
“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend,
it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to
say. That’s why I call it the Triple Filter Test.<br>”The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are
about to tell me is true?”
“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”
“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”
“No, on the contrary…”
“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but
you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”
“No, not really.”
“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is not necessarily true, not good and not even useful, why tell it to me at all?” 

蘇格拉底是古希臘的智者﹐他以智慧為尊。
有一天有人問這偉大的哲學家﹕你知道我剛聽到別人怎麼說你的朋友嗎﹖
‘等一等﹐你得先過我的三層過瀘測試才告訴我’﹐蘇格拉底說。
‘三層過瀘測試﹖’
‘是的﹐在你討論我的朋友以前﹐最好用點時間考慮你要說的。’
‘第一層是你是否肯定你要告訴我的是事實﹖’
‘不肯定﹐我只是聽說。。。’
‘那你不肯定是事實﹐第二層﹐你要講我朋友的好事嗎﹖’
‘不是﹐相反的。。。’
‘那你要說關於他的壞事﹐但你不肯定是事實’
‘最後一層﹐你要說的對我有用嗎﹖’
‘不算有用’
‘如果你想說我朋友的事﹐但你不肯定是事實﹐又不是好消息﹐對我又沒用處﹐你幹嘛告訴我呢﹖’