Ernest Nagel (November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985) was an American philosopher of science. Suppes, Patrick (1999)
Biographical memoir of Ernest Nagel
In '' American National Biograph''y (Vol. 16, pp. 216-218). New York: Oxford University Press. uthor eprint/ref> Along with

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. He ...

Hans Reichenbach Hans Reichenbach (September 26, 1891 – April 9, 1953) was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He was influential in the areas of science, education, and of logical empiricism. He founded the ''Gesel ...

, and

Carl Hempel Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel (January 8, 1905 – November 9, 1997) was a German writer, philosopher, logician, and epistemologist. He was a major figure in logical empiricism, a 20th-century movement in the philosophy of science. He is espec ...

, he is sometimes seen as one of the major figures of the logical positivist movement. His 1961 book '' The Structure of Science'' is considered a foundational work in the logic of scientific explanation.

Life and career

Nagel was born in Nové Mesto nad Váhom (now in Slovakia, then Vágújhely and part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

). His mother, Frida Weiss, was from the nearby town of Vrbové (or Verbo). He emigrated to the United States at the age of 10 and became a U.S. citizen in 1919. He received a BSc from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1923, and earned his PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

in 1931, with a dissertation on the concept of measurement. Except for one year (1966-1967) at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

, he spent his entire academic career at Columbia. He became the first John Dewey Professor of Philosophy there in 1955. And then University Professor from 1967 until his retirement in 1970, after which he continued to teach. In 1977, he was one of the few philosophers elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. His work concerned the philosophy of mathematical fields such as geometry and probability, quantum mechanics, and the status of reductive and inductive theories of science. His book '' The Structure of Science'' (1961) practically inaugurated the field of analytic philosophy of science. He expounded the different kinds of explanation in different fields, and was sceptical about attempts to unify the nature of scientific laws or explanations. He was the first to propose that by positing analytic equivalencies (or "bridge laws") between the terms of different sciences, one could eliminate all ontological commitments except those required by the most basic science. He also upheld the view that social sciences are scientific, and should adopt the same standards as natural sciences. Nagel wrote ''An Introduction to Logic and the Scientific Method'' with Morris Raphael Cohen, his CCNY teacher in 1934. In 1958, he published with

James R. Newman James Roy Newman (1907–1966) was an American mathematician and mathematical historian. He was also a lawyer, practicing in the state of New York from 1929 to 1941. During and after World War II, he held several positions in the United States go ...

''Gödel's proof'', a short book explicating

Gödel's incompleteness theorems Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research i ...

to those not well trained in mathematical logic. He edited the '' Journal of Philosophy'' (1939–1956) and the '' Journal of Symbolic Logic'' (1940-1946). As a public intellectual, he supported a skeptical approach to claims of the paranormal, becoming one of the first sponsors and fellows of the

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...

in 1976, along with 24 other notable philosophers like W. V. Quine. The committee posthumously inducted him into their "Pantheon of Skeptics" in recognition of Nagel's contributions to the cause of scientific skepticism. Nagel was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. Nagel was an elected member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...

(1962) and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

(1981). He died in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He had two sons,

Alexander Nagel Alexander Joseph Nagel (born 13 September 1945 in New York City) is an American mathematician, specializing in harmonic analysis, functions of several complex variables, and linear partial differential equations. Biography He received in 1966 ...

(professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin) and

Sidney Nagel Sidney Robert Nagel is an American physicist and the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he is affiliated with the Department of Physics, the James Franck Institute, and the Enrico Fermi Institute. His ...

(professor of physics at the University of Chicago). Nagel's doctoral students include Morton White, Patrick Suppes, Henry Kyburg, Isaac Levi, and

Kenneth Schaffner Kenneth Francis Schaffner (born October 30, 1939) is an emeritus Distinguished University Professor, University Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. He specializes in the history an ...

. A festschrift, '' Philosophy, Science and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernest Nagel,'' was published in 1969.

Select works

*''On The Logic of Measurement'' (1930) *'' An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method'' (with M. R. Cohen, 1934) * "The Formation of Modern Conceptions of Formal Logic in the Development of Geometry" (1939) * ''

Principles of the Theory of Probability ''Principles of the Theory of Probability'' is a 1939 book about probability by the philosopher Ernest Nagel. It is considered a classic discussion of its subject. Reception The philosopher Isaac Levi Isaac Levi (June 30, 1930 – December 25, ...

'' (1939) * "The Meaning of Reduction in the Natural Sciences" (1949) * '' Sovereign Reason'' (1954) * '' Logic without Metaphysics'' (1957) * '' Gödel’s Proof'' (with J . R. Newman, 1958) * '' The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation'' (1961, second ed. 1979) * '' Observation and Theory in Science'' (with others, 1971) * '' Teleology Revisited and Other Essays in the Philosophy and History of Science'' (1979)

Life and career

Select works

References

Further reading