Starting to produce a good paper

Again, the assignment.

According to Descartes, even if we don't know that the external world, the world
outside our minds, exists, still we know the contexts of our own minds. Explain
briefly his argument for this claim.

Then take up this further point.

Explain how Descartes' skeptical analysis leads to this starting point,
indicating the steps of his analysis in the first Meditation.

Let's do a stream of consciousness analysis

What is being asked?
     And then
How does our reading give the relevant material to answer this question?

If we can answer these questions, we can write an excellent paper.

Part 1.

According to Descartes, even if we don't know that the external world, the world
outside our minds, exists, still we know the contexts of our own minds. Explain
briefly his argument for this claim.

That part comes from the 2nd Meditation.
     It's asking for an explanation of the cogito argument

Let's step back, and see what the problem is.

Think of an example. Descartes gives a good one.

I see the wax.
     I don't know if the wax exists
But I do know: my mind exists

We can find that point in the text

Before writing further, let us look at part 2.

Explain how Descartes' skeptical analysis leads to this starting point,
indicating the steps of his analysis in the first Meditation.

So now we need to turn to the 1st Meditation

Well, we know that it gives a four-stage skeptical argument.

Before just writing out that argument, let's ask how part 2 relates to part 1.
We want to step back before focusing on the details.
     It's easy to get lost in the details.
Writing out the four-stages before we know how to use them probably is a mistake

The first meditation defends skepticism, and the second meditation argues that
even if skepticism be true, still we know our own minds.

The paper asks, first
     First summarize the argument of the 2nd Meditation
And then
     To explain how skepticism leads towards that analysis.

How does it?
Well, what do we know at the end of the 1st Meditation?
     The question seems to be about the transition from the lst to the 2nd
Meditation.

Thinking out loud: at the end of the lst meditation we have no reason to think
that the external world exists. If skepticism be true, then maybe nothing exists.

So what could exist?
     The only thing left, the mind.
For the mind is what reflects on the skeptical argument.

For doubt to exist, there must be a doubter, i. E. someone doubting.

Now we know enough to do a paper outline.