Chatton criticized this theory relentlessly, primarily on the ground that concepts as ficta are an unnecessary intermediary between the cognizer and the thing cognized, such that the cognizer would be immediately aware only of the general concept, and not of the individuals picked out by the general concept. In short, the fictum theory is not consistent with direct realism, which was a hallmark of Ockhamist epistemology. Chatton suggested that it made the most sense from an Aristotelian point of view to treat concepts as accidents, and not as substances at all. On Chatton’s view, concepts are modifications of the soul, and in particular my concept of \(X\) is nothing more than my act of thinking about \(X\). Concepts are not intermediaries that we then think with, but are rather simply our very acts of thinking themselves, i.e., my concept of \(X\) is just my intellectio (=act of thinking) of instances of \(X\). In response to Chatton’s criticism and his positive alternative, Ockham abandoned his fictum theory, at first with some hesitation, wavering between this early theory and Chatton’s new intellectio model, subsequently embracing it more fully, and finally, in his most mature philosophical reflection on the topic, even arguing against the old fictum theory. The stages of Ockham’s change of mind are well documented in the different versions of his commentary on the Sentences, and are even an important source for our dating of those different versions.