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

Although it may help, people like me do not necessarily spend their time learning several languages. I have reasonable competence only in my native language, Hindi, and the language you are reading right now. Like other philosophers of language, I am interested in more general questions concerning language, such as how we manage to do (miraculous!) things like convey information, express thoughts, or make promises by producing sounds or scribbling symbols. Some other questions I work on include: What is a language? What counts as linguistic competence? Can non-human animals, or machines, have a language? How many kinds of languages can there be?

I am currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at Uppsala University, Sweden. 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 🙂