On careful reading, I think the intent of the 5e Darkness spell is that creatures inside the magical darkness can see illuminated areas that are outside the darkness. I suspect that being inside the radius of the Darkness spell is like being in a pitch-black cave. You might not be able to see your own hand in front of your face, but you could clearly see a lit candle 100 feet away, even if it's too far away to illuminate you.
As I recall, previous editions of D&D described the Darkness spell as completely blocking all light. The 5e Darkness spell, on the other hand, only states that nonmagical light can't illuminate it. It also states that creatures with darkvision "can't see through" the magical darkness, which might make it sound like there's an impenetrable barrier of darkness surrounding each creature within it. My feeling is that if the designers meant for the magical darkness to be a barrier that obscured all vision, they would have just said that creatures are blinded while in the magical darkness. (In fact, the most recent errata clarifies that you're not actually blinded while in a heavily obscured area such as darkness, but do effectively suffer from the blinded condition when trying to see something IN that area.) I believe that the areas of magical darkness are dark to creatures with darkvision, but I don't see why they couldn't use their darkvision when looking beyond the magical darkness. (Or looking into an illuminated area beyond the magical darkness, for that matter.)
[EDIT] You could take this interpretation to its logical conclusion, and say it doesn't prevent creatures on one side of the magical darkness from seeing illuminated areas on the other side of the magical darkness. If the Darkness spell was cast in, say, the middle of a long hallway, it would appear to a creature in that hallway that there was a thirty-foot, pitch-black chasm in the middle of the hallway, with no walls, ceiling, or floor... but they WOULD be able to see the hallway continuing on beyond the "chasm". Walking into the magical darkness, they would not be able to see themselves or anything else in the radius of the spell, but would still be able to see the hallway beyond the magical darkness, both in front of them and behind them. This can't possibly be the intent, however. For one thing, you would be unable to see sections of the far hallway obscured by creatures and objects inside the darkness. They would effectively cast a "shadow" on the area behind them, rendering the spell confusing and less effective.
Logical weirdness aside, treating Darkness as a "dark shadow" and not an "impenetrable black cloud" does have advantages. (For one thing, creatures with the ability to cast Darkness, such as Drow, could see outside the range of the Darkness effect.) On the other hand, it's kind of weird and hard to describe. In play, it might be easier to just to treat the Darkness spell as creating an impenetrable cloud of magical darkness, and say that characters in magical darkness "effectively suffer from the blinded condition" when trying to see anything inside or outside of the area. Like most everything else in 5e D&D, it's up to DM adjudication.
As I recall, previous editions of D&D described the Darkness spell as completely blocking all light. The 5e Darkness spell, on the other hand, only states that nonmagical light can't illuminate it. It also states that creatures with darkvision "can't see through" the magical darkness, which might make it sound like there's an impenetrable barrier of darkness surrounding each creature within it. My feeling is that if the designers meant for the magical darkness to be a barrier that obscured all vision, they would have just said that creatures are blinded while in the magical darkness. (In fact, the most recent errata clarifies that you're not actually blinded while in a heavily obscured area such as darkness, but do effectively suffer from the blinded condition when trying to see something IN that area.) I believe that the areas of magical darkness are dark to creatures with darkvision, but I don't see why they couldn't use their darkvision when looking beyond the magical darkness. (Or looking into an illuminated area beyond the magical darkness, for that matter.)
[EDIT] You could take this interpretation to its logical conclusion, and say it doesn't prevent creatures on one side of the magical darkness from seeing illuminated areas on the other side of the magical darkness. If the Darkness spell was cast in, say, the middle of a long hallway, it would appear to a creature in that hallway that there was a thirty-foot, pitch-black chasm in the middle of the hallway, with no walls, ceiling, or floor... but they WOULD be able to see the hallway continuing on beyond the "chasm". Walking into the magical darkness, they would not be able to see themselves or anything else in the radius of the spell, but would still be able to see the hallway beyond the magical darkness, both in front of them and behind them. This can't possibly be the intent, however. For one thing, you would be unable to see sections of the far hallway obscured by creatures and objects inside the darkness. They would effectively cast a "shadow" on the area behind them, rendering the spell confusing and less effective.
Logical weirdness aside, treating Darkness as a "dark shadow" and not an "impenetrable black cloud" does have advantages. (For one thing, creatures with the ability to cast Darkness, such as Drow, could see outside the range of the Darkness effect.) On the other hand, it's kind of weird and hard to describe. In play, it might be easier to just to treat the Darkness spell as creating an impenetrable cloud of magical darkness, and say that characters in magical darkness "effectively suffer from the blinded condition" when trying to see anything inside or outside of the area. Like most everything else in 5e D&D, it's up to DM adjudication.
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