Here, the notion of de re is to be contrasted with de dicto. De dicto concerns a proposition or about what is said, whereas de re concerns the thing itself or being. Thus, there is a formal distinction, for instance, between the attribute of omnipotence and the attribute of omniscience because (1) omnipotence and omniscience are inseparable for an omnipotent being (i.e. God), (2) omnipotence and omniscience do not have the same definition, and (3) the distinction between omnipotence and omniscience themselves exists de re (i.e. not merely conceptually or propositionallyde dicto). Again, as a reminder, a formal distinction is a logical distinction. The upshot, for Scotus, is that omnipotence and omniscience are logically distinct for God; however, God does not have the metaphysical properties or attributes of omnipotence or omniscience; rather, metaphysically speaking, God is omnipotence, and God is omniscient.
