Socrates was widely lauded in ancient Greece for his great wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon a friend, who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, guess what I just heard about one of your students?”
“Stop right there,” Socrates replied, raising his hand. “Let’s think this through. Before you tell me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Test of Three.”
“The Test of Three?”
“That is correct,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my student, let’s take a moment to test what you’re going to say. The first test is Truth. Are you absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”
The man thought for a while, then shook his head. “No,” he replied, “actually I just heard about it from someone else.”
“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second test, the test 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 because there is a third test – the flter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be of any use 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 ashamed and said nothing more.
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out that Plato was shagging his wife.
