Nikhil Mahant

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Intellectual Themes Initiative on ‘Belief’ at the Central European University in Vienna. I am interested in the philosophy of language, mind, and metaphysics.

I defended my PhD thesis—titled ‘names are words’—in December 2022. My thesis 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 there are many cats. But then, unlike common nouns, the exact pronunciation (or spelling) of a nameis an important aspect of their meaning (although I don’t mind being referred to as ‘Nihil’, that’s not my name.)

Apart from names, I like to think about the notion of belief and what (kind of things) words are. I love food. And owls. And cats.