 In this way, Paul of Venice implicitly states two theses concerning individuals: (1) the thesis of the partial indeterminacy of their features and properties, and (2) that of the substantial unpredictability of their behavior. According to him, the only way to ascertain the presence of some potency, i.e., of a real possibility, is to ascertain its realisation, i.e., the passage to actuality. Moreover, he seems to admit the existence in individuals of potencies/possibilities that will not reach actuality – that is, of capacities that will never be developed. All men can laugh, and this potency/possibility is real even in those who have never laughed and never will (commentary on the Isagoge, cap. de proprio). Yet, we can reasonably infer the presence in a given individual of a undeveloped potency/possibility if we have previously observed its actualisation in many other individuals of the same species. What is absolutely inconceivable from this perspective is the possibility of a real novelty, i.e., a real change, in the universe. In this view, whatever effect is produced (the ‘act’) is immediately traced back to a pre-existing reality (the ‘potency’) which is not different from the effect it is intended to explain, but is, in some way, the effect itself at an incomplete stage of being. What is now real was already present in reality, but in a different way. Creation itself, as we have seen, is interpreted according to this scheme by means of the theory of divine exemplarism. In conclusion, it can be said that in a sense the world has always existed, if not in act then at least virtually (as a real and not merely logical possibility) in God’s mind and omnipotence.