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 — for example, describing the world, expressing thoughts, or performing actions (e.g., making promises). Apart from language, I am interested in the philosophy of mind (e.g., what are altered states of consciousness?) and the philosophy of religion (e.g., the nature of religious language). A big influence on me is the medieval saint-poet Mirabai, who is thought to have spent some — and, according to some stories, quite a lot of — time in the city where I grew up.

I am Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA) India Campus. I am based at the UWA Chennai Campus, but currently I am working from the Mumbai Campus. From August 2024 to July 2026, I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Uppsala University. Earlier, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, where I also wrote my PhD dissertation. My dissertation was on the philosophy of proper names. (“Proper names” is philosophy speak for names of particular individuals, such as “Varanasi” or “William James”.) I remain deeply interested in all things names.

More information about my research and academic background can be found through the links above. I am still working on this website 🙂