 While only individuals have real, extra-mental existence, every individual by its very nature has several different ontological or quidditative aspects. Auriol calls these quidditative aspects rationes (a term that will remain untranslated in the rest of this entry). Thus, Auriol claims that, e.g., Socrates has the rationes substance, corporeality, sensitivity, rationality. Moreover, rationes of the same kind found in different individuals are “maximally similar” (simillimae). e.g., Socrates’ corporeality is totally like Plato’s corporeality, which is totally like the donkey Brunellus’ corporeality. It should be noted that these rationes are non-universal characteristics, i.e. a ratio belongs to one and only one individual. This is why Auriol emphasizes the maximal similarity of rationes of the same kind: they are not the same and they are not shared, they are merely as alike as they can be. What is most important about these rationes in the present context is that they are the basic unit of intellectual acquaintance: every ratio of its very nature is able to serve as the basis for a concept, although the concept that results from the intellection of a ratio can be modified by the way that we conceive it (our modus concipiendi), a purely psychological difference with no immediate grounds in extra-mental reality. We might say that a ratio directs our intellect to form one certain concept, this core concept undergoing modification according to the way we conceive it. Our universal concepts, then, have in these rationes a direct basis in extra-mental individuals. (See, for more on this, Friedman 1999, Wöller 2015, pp. 36–79; for the term ‘maximally similar’ [as it is used in Ockham], see Panaccio 1992, pp. 258–67.) What universal concept we actually form, according to Auriol, depends on how closely our will makes the intellect focus on the information we receive from the object of cognition, and hence how strong an impression the object makes on the intellect: the more closely focused, the stronger the impression, the more specific the universal concept that is formed.