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Socrates
Topic Started: Jun 21 2005, 11:21 AM (227 Views)
jon-nyc
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Cheers
In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC) Socrates was widely lauded for his
wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who
ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just
heard about one of your students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me 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
student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. 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 student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about
him, even though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there
is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell
me about my student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really"

Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither
True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and ashamed.

This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such
high esteem. It also explains why he never found out that Plato was
banging his wife.

In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
[size=7]now THAT is funny!!![/size]

:D :D :D

The dogma lives loudly within me.
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
:) Tommy Likey
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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kentcouncil
Fulla-Carp
I don't know... I think that info would have passed the "usefulness" filter... :smile:
It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.

- P.G. Wodehouse
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
kentcouncil
Jun 21 2005, 11:31 AM
I don't know... I think that info would have passed the "usefulness" filter... :smile:

that occurred to me too, after i got up off the floor and put my ass back on.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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NAK-1.0
Senior Carp
...
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Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
jon-nyc
Jun 21 2005, 11:34 AM
"... after i got up off the floor and put my ass back on."

That's a great line, I have to remember it!

I suppose this story also explains why no one ever bumped into Socrates on an internet forum...
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
Between the joke and the "pick my ass up off the floor" line, I'm laughing so hard I can barely see to type!
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

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