THE TRIPLE-FILTER TEST

　　三重筛选法

　　One day, an acquaintance met Socrates and said, “Do you know what I just heard about yourfriend?”

　　“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be agood idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple-filtertest. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me istrue?”

　　“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 thesecond filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend somethinggood?”

　　“No, on the contrary...”

　　“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you're notcertain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left — the filter ofUsefulness. 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 evenuseful, why tell it to me at all?”

　　这天，苏格拉底碰到一个熟人，这人问他：“我听说你的朋友出了点事，你听说了吗？”

　　“等一下，”苏格拉底回答，“你告诉我之前，咱们不妨抽点时间筛选一下你要跟我说的话。我叫它三重筛选法。第一层筛选的原则是真实性。你有把握你要说的话都是真的吗？”

　　“没，没把握。”这人说，“其实我也只是听说而已……”

　　“好，”苏格拉底说，“这么说来，你并不能保证这话的真实性喽。我们再来试试第二层，这次筛选的原则是正面性。你要说的我朋友的事是好事吗？”

　　“不，恰恰相反……”

　　“看来，”苏格拉底继续说，“你要说的我朋友的事是坏事，但你没把握这事是真实发生的。还有一层筛选，这第三层的标准是实用性，如果通过的话，你也可以算作是通过这次筛选测试。你要讲的我朋友的事对我有用吗？”

　　“没，没什么用。”

　　“那好，”苏格拉底总结道，“如果你要告诉我的事儿既不真实，又不正面，还一点用处都没有，那你还讲它干吗呢？”