My name is Nikhil Mahant. I am an academic philosopher specializing in the philosophy of language.

Like other philosophers of language, I am interested in questions such as how we manage to do (miraculous!) things by producing sounds or scribbling symbols, e.g., describing the world, express thoughts, or perform actions (e.g., make promises). Apart from language, I am interested in the philosophy of mind (what is consciousness? what are its features?) and the philosophy of religion (nature of religious language). A big influence on me is the medieval saint-poet Mirabai, who (is thought to have) spent some (much) time in the city I grew up in.

Here is a picture of me, from as North as I have ever been. The location is somewhere near Umeå, Sweden. (Not North enough perhaps, but look at the beautiful violet (and yellow and orange) glow in the sky!)

I am currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at Uppsala University. My project — titled ‘Do AI generated outputs have content?’ — focuses on philosophical questions concerning the linguistic and mental capacities of AI systems. Earlier, I have worked as a postdoc at the Central European University (CEU), Vienna, which is where I completed my PhD. My PhD thesis — titled ‘names are words’ — argues that names are a special kind of word, much like common nouns, but also a bit different. Like a common noun, the same name can be used to talk about different individuals. There are many nikhils just as there are many cats. But then, unlike common nouns, the exact pronunciation (or spelling) of a name is an important aspect of their meaning (although I don’t mind being referred to as ‘Nihil’, that’s not my name.)

Some more information about my research and academic background is available through the links above. I am still working on this website 🙂