The value of Critical Thinking

[taurusmoon]

Some of you may be aware of the ordeal my son had with his Critical Thinking course and how I got sucked into the mess. If not, it's not a very exciting story so I won't bore you with it here. Suffice it to say, that thinking proved not to be his strong suit.

With that experience behind me, however, this story that found its way into my inbox today was quite vindicating:




Keep this in mind the next time you either hear or are about to repeat a
rumor.

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

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to
pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my
student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first
filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to
tell me is true?"

"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 the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "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 the test though, because there is
a third filter - the filter of is Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me
about my student 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 a great
philosopher and held in such high esteem.

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

[CurtisEdmonds]

Rotary has some kind of test or other that is very similar to this (although they take it seriously).

[amykhar]

I have to disagree with the man's assesment on the filter test. I think this would have been very useful information for Socrates to have.

[taurusmoon]

I know. He probably got a D in Critical Thinking too.

[soxfan[$]]