The method of doubt is a method developed by the philosopher René Descartes (1596 -1650) in his famous essay, Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). Descartes goal was to find a method which allowed him to find true knowledge.

What caused Descartes to doubt?

Descartes begins the First Meditation by noting that there are many things he once believed to be true that he has later learned were not. ... So, Descartes is searching for something certain, something that cannot be doubted. In order to find this kind of certainty, he sets out to doubt everything he can.

Who is responsible for encouraging methodic doubt?

In the first half of the 17th century, the French Rationalist René Descartes used methodic doubt to reach certain knowledge of self-existence in the act of thinking, expressed in the indubitable proposition cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”).