 Gilbert of Poitiers (1085/90–1154) stressed the idea that natural regularities which are called natural necessities are not absolute, since they are chosen by God and can be overridden by divine power. This had become a widespread theological view in Gilbert’s time. Gilbert explained it in the light of the Augustinian view of God’s acting by choice between alternative providential options and omnipotence as an executive power. There is an interesting formulation of Plato’s ‘Platonitas’ in Gilbert. This is said to include all of what Plato was, is and will be as well as what he could be but never is. Even though Gilbert does not explain why there is a modal element in the individual concept, it was probably needed in order to speak about Plato in alternative possible histories or, as in Abelard, about Socrates as a bishop. Gilbert seems to have been the first to formulate an individual concept in this way (Knuuttila 1993, 75–82; Marenbon 2007: 158–159).