Full Idea
We distinguish two kinds of existence questions: first, entities of a new kind within the framework; we call them 'internal questions'. Second, 'external questions', concerning the existence or reality of the system of entities as a whole.
Gist of Idea
Existence questions are 'internal' (within a framework) or 'external' (concerning the whole framework)
Source
Rudolph Carnap (Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology [1950], 2)
Book Reference
Carnap,Rudolph: 'Meaning and Necessity (2nd ed)' [Chicago 1988], p.206
A Reaction
This nicely disposes of many ontological difficulties, but at the price of labelling most external questions as meaningless, so that the internal answers have very little commitment, and the external (big) questions are now banned. Not for me.
Related Idea
Idea 12217 For ontology we need, not internal or external views, but a view from outside reality [Fine,K]