It has been suggested that Kierkegaard saw a need for the category of subjective truth because objective truth could not establish the 'certainty' of religious beliefs (i.e., the incarnation in particular). With respect to questions that are of infinite personal concern (e.g.,one's eternal happiness) one must be sure as to the validity of one's beliefs. 1 Paul Edwards puts the matter as follows:
The question of whether I shall live forever and what I must do to reach this goal, to obtain 'that thing one would more than gladly do everything to earn' [CUP, p. 156] is of 'infinite personal interest' and requires decisive action here and now. Where my infinite interest is concerned I must have certainty. Nothing less will do. Science and reason, however, cannot give me this certainty and hence must be banished from religious discussion .2
There is something right and something wrong in what Edwards says here. He thinks that because 'reason,' associated by Kierkegaard with objectivity, fails to provide certainty with respect to the belief essential to eternal happiness, Kierkegaard requires the idea of truth as subjectivity. Edwards assumes that Kierkegaard thinks subjectivity can provide certainty. But Edwards is wrong in a big way here. Kierkegaard says,