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Ernest was born on November 16, 1901 in Nove Mesto, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary.
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Ernest Nagel immigrated to the United States in 1911 and received his citizenship in 1919.
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From 1931 to 1970 (39 years!) Nagel taught philosophy at Columbia University.
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In 1934, after abandoning a realistic ontology for an empirical and theoretical philosophy of science, Nagel published his book An introduction to Logic and Scientific Method with Morris R. Cohen. His book explains the function of logical principles in scientific method applied to the natural and social sciences.
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In Logic Without Metaphysics, Nagel defended the naturalistic interpretation of logic, arguing that mathematical principles should be understood in accordance with their function in specific inquiries. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Ernest Nagel.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Nagel.
The following link features a video covering his ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXWAXtQK6zE -
The Structure of Science is regarded as one of the most influential works covering the philosophy of science. In it, Nagel takes a look at the logical structure of scientific concepts and evaluates claims of knowledge in various sciences. He attempts to validate that the logic of scientific explanation is valid across all sciences. Seeing differences between views of scientific concepts as "preferred modes of speech."
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Nagel died of pneumonia at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. His work and ideas continue to influence the scientific minds of today.