Triple Filter Test
Dr Shahab Ashraf
Deputy Director at RCA-Civil Services-IAS Academy ,Govt of India and Asst Prof. at Jamia Hamdard University,New Delhi-62
In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold 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 you talk to me about my
friend, it might be good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re
going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first
filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about
to tell me is true?"
"Well, 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?"
"Umm, no, on the contrary…"
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my
friend, 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 neither
true, nor good, nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
Assistant Professor
6 年Same story with same filters is about Kautilya also.Great people think alike or we can say that whosoever shared changed the name....in any case the essence of the story is important not the characters.