 Śrīharṣa offers his refutation-arguments with the aim of undermining the dualistic ontology accepted by Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika philosophers. However, these arguments also serve another aim, which he gestures at, and which seems to drive many of the arguments in The Sweets of Refutation. It is to show that rational inquiry into the nature of reality—i.e., inquiry that proceeds through the exchange of arguments directed towards settling some question—is in fact futile.