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Many philosophers have experimented with global doubt. The majority have come to the conclusion that certain knowledge is impossible, but others have used it to find the things that can be certain of, or at least the things they can be most sure about.

Socrates used examples that we cannot be 100 percent certain of in order to rebuke arguments. He believed that nobody can ever be 100 percent certain of anything due to the sceptical arguments. Many philosophers have agreed with this. This did not lead to knowledge at all, and so can be regarded as a futile exercise. It can also lead to the conclusion that in order to live practically and also to philosophise it is necessary to accept knowledge when we are over a certain amount of certainty. Doubting everything can only lead to knowledge if a philosopher can identify things which he cannot doubt, and which do not come from the senses or a believe in the real world.

In his book, Meditations, Descartes rejected everything he previously knew, but unlike his predecessors he found things he believed he could still be certain of. Knowing nothing of the world around him, he still decided he could be sure of things inside his mind, and so concluded that he was thinking. He used "logic" to make other conclusions on top of this. Many problems have been identified with the logic that was used, and Descartes' approach did not lead to any certain knowledge of the world.

If knowledge we assume to be true goes unquestioned, we cannot be certain of its truth. It is therefore necessary that philosophers approach accepted knowledge with a reasonable amount of doubt, or else untrue things will be accepted. However, most philosophers have usually found that global doubt does not lead to any certain knowledge, and global doubt has not been used to establish any truly useful knowledge.

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