What, then, about external goods? As we have seen, candy is one example, but more generally external goods are such things as fame, reputation, money, and, in a business context, profit. Perhaps most generically we can characterize external goods as involving success in some way or other, whereas internal goods involve the pursuit of excellence—the chess-playing child, we may hope, will come to have reasons for ‘trying to excel in whatever way the game of chess demands’.
