 Many later medieval thinkers effectively agree with Abelard on this point. The elements that compose my body only exist in actuality when my body has been dissolved back into elemental matter (see Ward 2014, 125–44). While I am alive, these elements only exist “virtually” or “potentially” in me. Some medieval philosophers went so far as to suggest that most or even all the parts of a substance exist only in potency when the substance is actual (see Pasnau 2011, 606–29).