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Ernest Nagel is born in Nové Město, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, now in Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia).
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At 10 years old, Ernest and his family emigrate to The United States of America.
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Ernest becomes US Citizen at age 18.
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Ernest earned a Bachelor of Science in 1923 from the College of the City of New York, while teaching for a decade in NYC Pubic Schools. While at College of the City New York, Ernest was mentored by Professor Morris Cohen. Cohen emphasized the role of reason in science.
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While teaching for a decade in NYC public schools, Ernest earned his Ph.D from Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D with a dissertation on the concept of measurement.
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Except for one year (1930-1931) teaching at College of the City of New York and one year (1966-1967) at Rockefeller University, Ernest taught philosophy at Columbia University from 1931 to 1970, and spent his entire career there.
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Association with Professor Cohen led to the co-publication of "An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method" (1934), one of the earliest and most successful textbooks in the field of Scientific Logic.
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Ernest became a Guggenheim Fellow from 1934-35 and again from 1950-51. Guggenheim Fellowships are annually awarded grants presented by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation since 1925 to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts."
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Ernest marries Edith Haggstrom in 1935. Two sons are born, Alexander and Sidney, both of which pursue high degrees in math and the sciences.
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Nagel publishes, "Impressions and Appraisals of Analytic Philosophy in Europe," in the Journal of Philosophy (1936). Based upon a year of study in Europe, this essay introduced the philosophical work of the European philosophers Rudolf Carnap and Ludwig Wittgenstein to American Intellectuals. He sought to couch the thoughts of the Logical Positivists within the better known ideas of American Pragmatic Naturalism.
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Ernest publishes his paper "Logic Without Ontology", the result of his year in Europe studying Logical Positivism. Ernest expresses his concepts of logic and mathematics and their conclusions in simple terms.
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Ernest was awarded his 2nd Guggenheim Fellowship from 1950-51 for continually exception work in the arts.
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Ernest defined naturalism as "a generalized account of the cosmic scheme and of man's place in it, as well as a logic of inquiry," in his presidential address to the annual gathering of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. Ernest believed in The 5 Senses and their importance to the Human Experience.
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Ernest elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954. The AAAS was founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, and other Founding Fathers. Membership in the academy is attained through a review and election process and is a high honor indicating both scholarly and societal merit.
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Ernest becomes Columbia University's first John Dewey Professor of Philosophy. John Dewey famously said, "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
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Ernest Nagel, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, gives lecture as part of a series, Howison Lectures in Philosophy, at UC Berkeley, 1960. Click Here to Listen to Complete Lecture
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In 1961, Ernest published "The Structure of Science", in which he rallied against "party-ism" and stated his belief that all outlooks of science were different only in the "preferred modes of speaking used". "The Structure of Science" is a foundational and structural work in the philosophy of science and scrutinized the logical structures across various sciences. Ernest believed that the same logical structures could and should be applied to all the sciences.
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Benjamin Franklin formed a debating club in Philadelphia that became the embryo of the American Philosophical Society. Ernest joined its ranks in 1962.
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Amidst ongoing protests concerning the Viet Nam Confict, Ernest reaches the highest academic ranking.
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Established by an act of Congress as a private, non-profit institution, The National Academy of Sciences was charged by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 with providing objective advice to the USA on science and technology. There is no application process and prospective members can only be suggested by other current members. In 1977, Ernest was nominated and elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
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Nagel died from complications stemming from pneumonia, Sept. 20, 1985, while being treated at at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, NYC.
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“The Cognitive Status of Theories.” Berkeley Graduate Lectures, gradlectures.berkeley.edu/lecture/cognitive-status-of-theories/. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Ernest Nagel.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Nov. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Nagel. Suppes, Patrick. “Read ‘Biographical Memoirs: Volume 65’ at NAP.edu.” National Academies Press: OpenBook, 2020, www.nap.edu/read/4548/chapter/14.
