 The Upaniṣadic conception of person is that of an ‘embodied soul’. The soul is essence of the person and it is what makes us the same person over time (possibly even across lifetimes). The Hindu schools defend what is contemporary philosophers call the Non-Reductionist view of persons. According to the Non-Reductionist view, the continued existence of persons is a deep, further fact, distinct from physical and psychological continuity, and a fact that holds completely or not at all (Parfit 1984, 445). Parfit notes that a Cartesian Ego, would be one such entity. The soul (ātman) as described by the Vedas and explicated by Hindu would be another. These ideas from the Upaniṣads are developed into various conceptions of persons by the Hindu philosophical schools which will be discussed in turn Sections 1.2 and 1.3 before we turn to unorthodox conceptions in Section 1.4.