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Nagel was born in Slovakia. He emigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a citizen at the age of 10. He received a BS from the City College of New York in 1923 and a PhD from Columbia University in 1931
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Nagel wrote a book called Introduction to Logic and the Scientific Method, who had Morris Raphael Cohen co-write. This was a short book talking about Godel's incompleteness of theorems that were not well trained in mathematical logic -
He practiced philosophy in the mathematic fields of geometry and quantum mechanics. He wrote a book in 1961 called "The Structure of Science" which was written to inaugurate the field of analytic philosophy of science. He expounded on different kind of explanations in the different fields and attempts to unify nature for scientific laws. -
He was one of the first sponsors and fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was among 24 other notable philosophers. The committee posthumously inducted him into the Pantheon of Skeptics. -
He died in New York in 1985 at the age of 83. He had 2 sons Alexander Nagel and Sidney Nagel.
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Nagel, Ernest, “A Defense of Atheism” In: Paul Edwards and Arthur Pap, eds., A Modern Introduction to Philosophy, revised edition, The Free Press, MacMillan, New York, 1967. Kurtz, Paul (2001). "Skeptical Inquirer: W.V. Quine (1908-2000)" (March/April 2001). p. 8. Suppes, Patrick (1994). "Ernest Nagel" (PDF). Biographical memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 10 April 2014