What skeptics should really be caught in is the ethical. Since Descartes they have all thought that during the period in which they doubted they dared not to express anything definite with regard to knowledge, but on the other hand they dared to act, because in this respect they could be satisfied with probability. Man is in the world and yet before God. All that he does and says comes under the rubric of the ethical. One cannot apply skepticism coherently in one's daily living.
True skepticism is speculative, hypothetical and decidedly non-existential.
Johannes Climacus is divided into two parts. Thesis one was held by Descartes and Hans L. Martensen, 1808-1884, a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, and later Bishop of Zealand. Martensen was a Hegelian, whom Kierkegaard would later publicly oppose. Thesis two is again supported by Hegelianism, the prevailing philosophy of the time. Thesis three emphasizes modern philosophy, which is often thought to begin with Descartes.