Rudolf Carnap's (1956) distinction between internal and external questions may prove relevant here.
But here it is important to distinguish between internal and external questions concerning a system of categories.
Thus Carnap's distinction between internal and external questions is to be rejected alongside with the rejection of the distinction between analytic and synthetic truths.
It is interesting to see that Feigl refers the reader here to Carnap's distinction between "internal" and "external" questions in his 1950 "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (see Feigl 1981, p. 391, Fn. 3; see further Feigl 1981, pp. 13 14).
Carnap's general recipe for avoiding undue commitments (while pursuing his investigations of various language forms, including the intensional ones Quine frowned upon) was given in terms of the distinction between so-called internal and external questions (1950a).
A selection of possible "internal" and "external" research questions is introduced.
Thus, because these data may be biased, and their internal and external validity questioned, they may not be applicable to some women with stable, mild and asymptomatic hypertension.
Almost 150 companies have been engulfed in internal and external investigations stemming from questions raised earlier this year about the impact and legality of options granting practices.
Whoever wins the race will have to deal with daunting internal and external challenges, apart from the question of when his constitutional powers will be decided by the next parliament.
Thus, reflection seems to be best achieved in medical students when a situation can be found or created that feels authentic to the learner, where some conflict between internal and external values or a critical question has been raised, and when there is a culture of reflection, a structured process for reflecting, and strong mentorship to support the reflective process.
