The āstika schools are:
- Samkhya, an atheistic and strongly dualist theoretical exposition of consciousness and matter.
- Yoga, a school emphasising meditation, contemplation and liberation.
- Nyaya or logic, explores sources of knowledge. Nyāya Sūtras.
- Vaisheshika, an empiricist school of atomism
- Mīmāṃsā, an anti-ascetic and anti-mysticist school of orthopraxy
- Vedānta, the last segment of knowledge in the Vedas, or the 'Jnan' (knowledge) 'Kanda' (section). Vedanta came to be the dominant current of Hinduism in the post-medieval period.