moreover, really is a Notion.[39] Thomas, who was a Realist, declared the universal Idea to be indeterminate, and placed individuation in determinate matter (_materia signata_), _i.e._ matter in its dimensions or determinations. According to him, the original principle is the universal Idea; the form, as _actus purus_, may, as with Aristotle, exist on its own account; the identity of matter and form, the forms of matter, as such, are further removed from the original principle,—while thinking substances are mere forms.[40] But for Scotus the universal is rather the individual One, the one he thinks may appear also in the other; he maintained therefore the principle of individuation, and the formal character of the universal. In his view indeterminate matter becomes individual through an inward positive addition; the substantial forms of things are their real essence. Occam thus represents the views of Scotus: “In the thing that exists outside of the soul the same Nature exists _realiter_ with the difference limiting (_contrahente_) it to a determinate individual, being only formally distinguished, and in itself neither universal nor individual, but incompletely universal in the thing, and completely universal in the understanding.”[41] Scotus racked his brains much over this subject. To universals the Formalists allowed only an ideal reality in the divine and human intellect beholding them.[42] We thus see how closely connected with this is the thought which we first meet with in the Scholastics, namely the seeking and giving of so-called proofs of God’s existence (_supra_, pp. 62-67). c. WILLIAM OCCAM.