Definition of "external" []

• Relating to, existing on, or connected with the outside or an outer part; exterior. (adjective)
• Suitable for application to the outside: external paints. (adjective)
• Existing independently of the mind. (adjective)
• Acting or coming from the outside: external pressures. (adjective)
• Of or relating chiefly to outward appearance; superficial: "An internal sense of righteousness dwindles into an external concern for reputation” ( A.R. Gurney, Jr.) (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As he puts it in discussing the Sextus 'attitude to the external world, “His own deep skepticism leaves him in a state of epochê, not only as to whether there are any such things as ˜external objects', but even as to whether these terms of the Dogmatists have any intelligible meaning at all.”"
• "And (not to mention your having discarded those archetypes) so may you suppose an external archetype on my principles; —external, I mean, to your own mind: though indeed it must be supposed to exist in that Mind which comprehends all things; but then, this serves all the ends of identity, as well as if it existed out of a mind."
• "This enormous external current must be accompanied by some effect within the fish _equivalent_ to a current, the direction of which is from the tail towards the head, and equal to the sum of _all these external_ forces."