評論
打印
One day, an acquaintance met Socrates and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
一天，蘇格拉底遇到一位熟人，熟人問：“你知道我剛剛聽說你朋友發生什么事情了嗎？”
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's 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?"
“等等，”蘇格拉底答道。“在你說出我朋友的事之前，何不稍等片刻，讓我對你想說的內容進行過濾。我把它叫做‘三重篩選測試’。第一重濾網是‘真相’。你能百分之百確定你的消息是真事嗎？”
"Well, no," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
“呃，不能，”那人說，“其實我也是剛聽人說的……”
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now, let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
“好的，”蘇格拉底說。“所以你并不清楚事情的真偽。現在，我們來進行第二次篩選——‘善意’。你要告訴我的是有關我朋友的好事嗎？”
"No, on the contrary..."
“不，恰恰相反……”
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left—the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
“那么，”蘇格拉底接著說，“你打算告訴我一件關于我朋友的壞事，但你又不確定其真偽。不過你依然有可能通過測試，因為還有一重濾網——‘實用’。這件關于我朋友的事對我有用嗎？”
"No, not really."
“不，沒什么用。”
"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?"
“好吧，”蘇格拉底總結道，“如果你要告訴我的事情既不是真的，又不是好事，甚至毫無用處，那你又何必告訴我呢？
