Carnap's internal and external questions

Part i

Graham Bird

pp. 97-131

in: Thomas Bonk (ed), Language, truth and knowledge, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

Carnap's complex set of distinctions between internal and external questions from his paper "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology"¹ has been influential but is now widely regarded as erroneous and long since refuted. It is not at all fanciful to trace one major source , perhaps the major source, of that verdict to Quine's comments in his paper "On Carnap's Views on Ontology" and in Word and Object.² For, although many others have commented unfavourably on Carnap's distinctions, most of these criticisms post-date Quine's comments and many of them are consciously influenced by Quine³. Nevertheless, despite this consensus I want to argue that Quine's criticisms leave Carnap's central points quite untouched.

Cited authors

Carnap Rudolf

Quine Willard Van Orman