 It may look as though this is just a terminological shift, but it is not so in at least the following way: a modal distinction is a lesser kind of distinction than a formal distinction. Formal distinctions obtain between genus and specific difference; thus, the difference between species/nature and haecceity, for Meyronnes, is less than the difference between genus and difference. Scotus, contrariwise, makes no such distinction between degrees of difference in this context (for this contrast between the two thinkers, see Dumont [1987], 18). Still, without some principled way of spelling out degrees of difference, this contrast between Scotus and Meyronnes amounts to nothing of any philosophical interest. To this extent the difference between the two thinkers might as well be merely terminological, and Meyronnes needs to do more work if he is to make any significant philosophical point here.