One day, an acquaintance¹ met Socrates and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

一天，苏格拉底遇到一位熟人，熟人问：“你知道我刚刚听说你朋友发生什么事情了吗？”

"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 filter² 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，”苏格拉底答道。“在你说出我朋友的事之前，何不稍等片刻，让我对你想说的内容进行过滤。我把它叫做‘三重筛选测试’。第一重滤网是‘真相’。你能百分之百确定你的消息是真事吗？”

"Well, no," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

“呃，不能，”那人说，“其实我也是刚听人说的……”

"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 Goodness³. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

“好的，”苏格拉底说。“所以你并不清楚事情的真伪。现在，我们来进行第二次筛选——‘善意’。你要告诉我的是有关我朋友的好事吗？”

"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，”苏格拉底接着说，“你打算告诉我一件关于我朋友的坏事，但你又不确定其真伪。不过你依然有可能通过测试，因为还有一重滤网——‘实用’。这件关于我朋友的事对我有用吗？”

"No, not really."

“不，没什么用。”

"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，”苏格拉底总结道，“如果你要告诉我的事情既不是真的，又不是好事，甚至毫无用处，那你又何必告诉我呢？