  Dietrich correlates his thesis of the real identity of existence and essence with his concept of being, both in its concrete form as ens or particular being and its abstract form as entitas. Ens denotes the essence of whatever is a determinate existing individual, while entitas denotes the same thing in abstraction. Ens is the most basic of all metaphysical concepts for Dietrich. It is that which first distinguishes a thing from nothingness. Both ens and entitas identify with essence. So one could say according to Dietrich that in considering a white ball for example, its ens is white, its entitas is whiteness, and its essence is that through which it is white and participates in whiteness.