Descartes is one of the most important western philosophers of the past few centuries. In Discourse on the Method" we see how he questions his own existence, and knowledge that he obtained from different sources. Being a well-educated person, Descartes finds his knowledge unsatisfying due to its uncertainty and as a result sets out on a quest in which his task was to undergo a process of discovering knowledge and rid himself of uncertainties.
In Part One, Descartes explains how much interest he took in learning and how much he wanted a "clear and steady knowledge to everything that is useful in life." That is, he wanted to learn not only information and ideas and opinions, but mainly things that were true and useful. He came to later learn that after all those years at school what he learned was nothing near the truth or it wasn't of importance to life. However, Mathematics on the other hand was the main area that held out any hope. Reason being it had procedures that enabled one to discover and prove things, to get results that seem logic to him.The search for Knowledge that was on importance and truth began.
Descartes search for knowledge starts with a claim of doubt( Part2). He doubts his senses, his body, everything he has experienced. In claiming doubt as his first step to knowledge, Descartes did not want to become a skeptic. His main intension in starting with doubt was to allow scientific inquiry to begin. In order for him to map out scientific endeavor he had to come up with a 'method' . This method was not a complete answer to skepticism but it act as a process by which the reasonable and thinking person could find knowledge. To proceed with his investigation Descartes determined to (1) lay aside all prejudice (2) To find the fundamental truth on which all knowledge rests (3) To discover the cause of error and (4) To understand everything clearly and distinctly.