Joshua Roebke in Seed Magazine:
What is truth? How do we recognize it? Truth is a concept with which we are all pretty familiar. It is an undercurrent in every conversation and interaction we have with one another. Yet few of us ever give it much conscious thought except when we believe it is absent or in doubt. It’s one of those intangibles that, when it does come up, we typically speak of only in absolutes. A statement can be either true or false, and that is all.
Even when we do think about truth and admit to blends of gray between the black and white, we frequently have a sense that a true answer merely exists beyond our immediate grasp. Given sufficient information and time, we could all eventually figure out the veracity of any claim or idea. In the meantime, most of us are satisfied with our hunches. We have a gut feeling for what is correct and proceed with our lives content in our beliefs.
Part of the reason for our satisfaction probably stems from the difference between what we say is “true” and what we consider to be “truth.” The distinction isn’t just semantic nitpicking. “True” is what we say of a statement we agree with or believe in. “Truth” is a far more nebulous and fundamental concept. We understand it as more of an ideal toward which we strive, rather than one we hold any dominion over.
More here.