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(2003) Language, truth and knowledge, Dordrecht, Springer.
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.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-0151-8_7
Full citation:
Bird, G. (2003)., Carnap's internal and external questions: part I, in T. Bonk (ed.), Language, truth and knowledge, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 97-131.
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