Truth versus truth
I am perplexed by the use of a capital T in the word ‘truth’. I realize that this is a common linguistic practice, especially amongst the religious, but its meaning escapes me. How does truth differ from Truth? What does that capital letter mean, other than the speaker’s desire to impress and perhaps intimidate?
The Russian word for ‘truth’ is ‘pravda’; and this is also the name of a Russian newspaper, famous during the Communist era for its divergence from pravda. Does Truth differ from truth in the same sense that Pravda differed from pravda?
In practice, lower-case truth tends to be uncontroversial. For instance, two plus two is four; or the sun rises in the east; or energy is conserved; or power corrupts. Few would care to dispute any of those propositions, because they are true. Whereas upper-case Truth is all about controversy; and the more True it is, the more bitter the dispute. It seems that truth is for all, but Truth is only for the chosen.
So Truth demands our respect, but truth merely deserves it.
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