The Honest Truth

While looking for some tips on good writing, I found a page on how to make writing more concise by substituting awkward or redundant phrases, such as "after" for "after the conclusion of" or "near" for "in the vicinity of."

I noticed "honest truth" was on the list. I could see why on its face this appears to be a redundancy. Taken literally, there should be no difference between the "honest truth" and the "truth" given there is only one truth.

I do not believe this is a mere redundancy (unless used by habit in as a cliche) but an expression of mutual knowledge. If you've read Stephen Pinker's The Stuff of Thought, you will understand how important mutual knowledge can be in human affairs. When we say "honest truth" we are acknowledging there is a public truth, a conventional truth everyone must acknowledge, and a private truth we all know is reality. The "honest truth" is a warning to everyone within earshot: I am about to reveal unspoken mutual knowledge.

Pinker also discusses how human language contains a model of time different from the mathematical or physical one known to science. A meeting can have an "end" and a "conclusion" the period leading up to the end. So it does make sense to say "after the conclusion" speaking to the period of winding down toward the actual end of the conference. I suspect many phrases exist to express these shades of meaning, which emerge from phenomena like mutual knowledge or the shaping of time.