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June 23, 2003

Triple Filter

[Thanks, once again to Theepan - I think he needs a blog of his own for all these jokes, what do you think?]

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge and truth in the highest esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Just a moment," Socrates replied." Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a small test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend,it would be a good idea to take a moment and 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 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, probably not."
"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?"
This is why Socrates was a brilliant philosopher and was held in such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out his best friend was banging his wife.

Posted by Peskie at June 23, 2003 12:00 PM

Comments

My grandma could have made a better joke out of the triple filter test than this one.... the dullest joke I ever heard!

Posted by: Tim at June 26, 2003 08:06 AM

Excellent, please feel free to post your Grandma's joke here (or a reference to it). Happy to either replace this joke or post as a new article - if you browse the other jokes you will see that I am happy to acknowledge the source....

Posted by: Ozguru at June 26, 2003 08:06 AM