Scotus does not deny that a creature does in fact participate in its being and imitate God as its exemplar. He does deny, however, that a creature must be understood in terms of such relations or that they constitute its ratitudo. The simply-simple concept of finite thus must qualitatively capture primarily diverse degrees of being and not a mere opposition to the primary identity of ens infinitum. Finite can be grasped independently of, and prior to, its possible relation to such a measure. This is because formally of itself, each being has an intrinsic degree of being, or what Scotus refers to as a being’s transcendental magnitude or virtual quantity.