Philosophy of Socrates

Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you either hear or are about torepeat a rumor.In ancient Greece, Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day thegreat philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly andsaid, "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 topass a little test. It's called the Test of Three.""Three?""That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about mystudent, let's take a moment to test what you're going to say.The first test is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you areabout to tell me is true?""No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it.""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 aboutto tell me about my student something good?""No, on the contrary...""So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him eventhough you're not certain it's true?"The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.Socrates continued. "You may still pass though, because there is a Thirdtest -- the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about mystudent going to be useful to me?""No, not really.""Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True norGood nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"The man was defeated and left, ashamed.This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such highesteem.