 Abelard, it seems, can easily unravel this puzzle by employing his distinction between difference in essentia and numerical difference. True, there are many overlapping men, each of which is different in essentia from the others. But this does not entail that there are an indefinite number of numerically different men. One might, however, wonder whether Abelard has completely dispelled the hint of paradox generated by the initial puzzle. After all, it would be nice to know which of these overlapping, but non-coincident wholes is Socrates. All that Abelard’s theoretical tools allow us to do is to say that while there is this whole which is imbued by Socrates’ soul and there is that whole which is imbued by Socrates’ soul, these wholes are not numerically many and, thus, there are not numerically many men where intuitively we thought there was only one (see Normore 2006, 749).