  William's response to this problem is to hold that the senses have the role simply of stimulating the intellective power in such a way that it “forms on its own and in itself intelligible forms for itself” (OO 1, 914b), a doctrine he draws from Augustine. According to this account, the intellect is fundamentally active in the acquisition of intelligible forms. William speaks of the intellect as able, under the prompting of the senses, to consider the substances that underlie sensible accidents, and speaks of the intellect as “abstracting” from sense experience in the sense that it forms concepts of so-called “vague individuals” by stripping away perceptible features that serve to distinguish one individual from another. In these cases, William says, “the intellect is occasionally inscribed by these forms that are more separate and more appropriate to its nature” (OO II suppl., 213b; Teske 2000, 450).