Wednesday, September 20, 2006

BusterStronghart@Gmail.com

Socratic Wisdom

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for hiswisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to himexcitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one ofyour students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the 'Test of Three'." "Three?" "That's right, "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. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me istrue?" "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 about to tell me about my student something good?" "No, on the contrary..." "So," Socrates interrupted, "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 though, because there is a third test - 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, nor Good, nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?" The man was defeated and ashamed. This is the reason Socrates was such a great philosopher, and held in such high esteem.

It also explains why he never found out that Plato was banging his wife.