# https://nikhilmahant.com ## Posts - [Why do we create art?](https://nikhilmahant.com/why-do-we-create-art/): One evening I spotted Naveen walking the alley in front of JCR and stopped him for a chat. This conversation happened as we circled the Chapel. Me: Hey Naveen! Naveen: Hey Nikhil! It’s been long since I saw you. Where did you vanish? Me: I could have asked you the same; I didn’t see you either! Naveen: I am quite active on the campus; it is you who stays locked up in the room. Anyway, how have you been? Me: I’ve been good, thank you. I have been meaning to talk to you since long. Do you have time now? Naveen: Of […] - [What makes a conversation philosophical?](https://nikhilmahant.com/what-makes-a-conversation-philosophical/): The smell of old wood, hum of turning pages, and clock ticks make Stephen’s library a place of charm. Dead professors peek from their pictures on the wall, keeping a perpetual academic watch. But I don’t sit in the main hall. I am allowed use of an adjacent room meant for faculty members. There is seldom anyone in the room after two in the afternoon and that is the time when I visit the library. And so, today too, I have the whole room to myself. A black bust of Albert Einstein sits in front of me. I smuggled it […] - [Philosophy and the Philosopher.](https://nikhilmahant.com/philosophy-and-the-philosopher/): For months I struggled, trying to get these conversations going; but this blog was not to take birth without a hint of divine intervention. Determined yet again, I sat down in Stephen’s library, suffering the travails of childbirth. Usually it stays occupied with people, but today I sit alone. As I engross myself in my project sifting through a million ideas, I feel a slight commotion on the desk placed next. I look to my left and notice some movement in the white, un-sanded gypsum bust of an ancient Roman emperor. The bust shakes its head, takes a deep breath, […] ## Pages - [Talks/Events](https://nikhilmahant.com/talks-events/): Recent/Upcoming Talks/Events: I co-organize a series of online colloquium style talks — the Uppsala Vienna AI Colloquium — with some friends from Vienna. - [Conversations](https://nikhilmahant.com/conversations/) - [Research](https://nikhilmahant.com/research/): Short abstracts of some articles that I am currently working on. For full drafts, please send me an email. My email address is my first name followed by my surname followed by @outlook.com. (I am not sure if this (now) common trick will keep a data mining algorithm from figuring out my email address, though.) [What’s Left of Rigidity?] This article argues that given some plausible assumptions about natural language and philosophical methodology, the following theses about names cannot be true together: (a) the same (‘proper’) name can be borne by distinct objects/individuals, and (b) names of natural language are […] - [CV](https://nikhilmahant.com/cv/) - [Nikhil Mahant](https://nikhilmahant.com/): 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. Apart from language, I am interested in the philosophy of mind (what is […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)