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Birth / Emigration
Nagel was born in Novo Mesto, Czechoslovakia and emigrated to the United States when he was ten becoming naturalized in 1919. -
Bachelors
Shortly after his naturalization, Nagel began university where eventually attained his Bachelor of Science from the College of the City of New York. -
Post-Grad
After his Bachelors, he continued his studies at Colombia where he graduated with his MA in Mathematics. -
PhD
Upon attainment of his masters, Nagel also graduated with his PhD in Philosophy from Colombia -
Colombia Staff
Shortly after obtaining his PhD, he joined the Colombia faculty as an editor of the Journal of Philosophy and the Journal of Symbolic logic. -
First Published Contribution
Upon his earliest works was An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, with Morris R. Cohen. This noted text has been praised for its high level of rigor and for its enrichment of the traditional dry fare of logic with illustrations of the functions of logical principles in scientific method, in the natural and social sciences, and in law and history. -
Marriage
Nagel married Edith Haggstrom; they had two children, Alexander and Sidney -
Bringing Wittgenstein to America
Nagel published an essay “Impressions and Appraisals of Analytic Philosophy in Europe” this introduced the work of European philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rudolf Carnap to Americans. Nagel sought to adapt the teachings of the logical positivists to the more comprehensive framework of American pragmatic naturalism. -
Change to American Pragmatic Naturalism
The influence of logical positivism on his thought resulted in his concepts of logic and mathematics in linguistic terms. This conclusion was developed in his 1944 paper "Logic without Ontology." -
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Pivotal Writings
Two of his books Sovereign Reason and Logic without Metaphysics consist wholly of previously published articles. These showed him to be one of the most analytic and critical thinkers in American philosophy. They also expressed and illustrated Nagel's method of contextualistic analysis. -
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Colombia Professor
He served as the John Dewey professor of philosophy at Columbia University from 1955 to 1966, then took the position of university professor there until 1970, becoming emeritus in 1970. -
End of Lectures
This was Nagel's last year doing special lectures at Colombia. -
Death of Ernest Nagel
Nagel dies of pneumonia at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.