The name “Johannes Climacus” is well known as the pseudonymous author of the Philosophical Fragments and the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. What is less well known is that Kierkegaard planned a work entitled, Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est, in which he intended to treat a number of philosophical themes in a literary fashion. About fifty pages of the manuscript were written apparently between the last few months of 1842 and the first few of 1843 and were first published in Barfod's edition of Kierkegaard's journals. In this text Kierkegaard takes up a number of issues surrounding Hegel's philosophy that were being discussed in Denmark at the time (e.g., the problem of the beginning of philosophy and the problem of systematic doubt). In tone and content, much of the work is satirical of Hegelianism in a way reminiscent of The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars.

The work takes the form of an intellectual biography of a naive young student named Johannes Climacus. It recounts how he became fascinated by the most recent philosophical movements and above all by the claim that modern philosophy begins with doubt. The Introduction tells, among other things, of Climacus' childhood and how his relation to his dialectical father prepared the way for his future philosophical contemplation. Part One relates how he begins his studies and comes into contact with discussions about “the recent philosophers.”