Socrates & Informations

Hello guys !

FrenchyRaph here.

Let's talk about a certain ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates.

According to legend, he somehow silenced his disciple, who was arriving very agitated.

And this is a very important act, even more so in our time. Let me explain why.

Before I do, here's a faithful reproduction of the scene.

One of Socrates' disciples arrives, very agitated. He reports that one of the philosopher's friends was speaking very badly of the latter.

Socrates stops him dead in his tracks, asks him to calm down and wait a minute...

The Greek sage asks him questions as usual.

Socrates: "Are you absolutely certain that what you're about to tell me is true?"

The disciple thinks for a moment and isn't really sure. Socrates replies that his disciple therefore doesn't know whether everything is true or not.

The disciple had to admit that he didn't...

Socrates: "What you're about to tell me, is it something bad?"

The disciple is sure, this time! There was nothing good in the reported words.

Socrates stops him again, then points out that he's about to say something bad, but he's not entirely sure if it's true...

The disciple admits this problem. Again.

Socrates: "Is what you're about to tell me about my friend going to help me?"

Socrates: "Will what you're about to tell me about my friend be of any use to me?"

His disciple hesitated. In reality, he didn't know whether this information would be useful to him or not.

It would probably keep him away from his friend.

But if you didn't know whether it was the truth or not, it might be useless to know.

Socrates finally tells him that he refuses to listen to the words then reported: "If what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor useful... What's the use of knowing it?!"

We live in a society of consumerism and, above all, hyper-information. There's so much information out there that authors from other eras couldn't possibly keep up.

Even the French author Emile Zola, who researched rigorously, would lose his head!

If this is ever the case for you, here's a little exercise.

Take a break from social networks and other media. Ask yourself whether this information is worthy of being stored in your brain, using these three questions.

It was FrenchyRaph. See you next time, bye !