 The focus of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika is on the self rather than the person. The individual self (jīva-ātma is their preferred term) occupies a central place in the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika ontology. Selves are really distinct individuals and do not merge into one ultimate reality at liberation. Much attention has been paid to the Nyāya arguments for the existence of the self, the ways of knowing the self, the characteristics of the self and the means to liberation. Let us begin by noting Nyāya-sūtra 1.1.10, which provides the famous ‘characteristics of the self’ as well as the basis of the inferential proof for the existence of the self: