Testing for Gossip

In ancient Greece, Socrates was well known as a great philosopher and was equally reputed for holding Knowledge in high esteem. On one of these days, one of his associates met him and said, “ Do you know what I just heard about your close friend?”

Socrates as usual being on his guard, asked him to consider waiting for a few moments until the associate could pass a test conducted by Socrates. A test that he referred to as “The Triple Filter Test.”

The associate was taken aback as he had never heard of such a test before.

To let matters be at peace, Socrates continued to explain to him. “Before you talk to me about my dear friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you are going to say. That is 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?”

“No,” the associate said, “Actually I just heard about it and…”

“Fine”, said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let us try the second filter test, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something really good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you are not certain it is true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter test left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be really useful to me?”

“No, not really…”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “If what you want to tell me is neither true not good nor even useful, then why tell it to me at all?”