Metaphysics and Historicity

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In the 26th Aquinas Lecture, Fackenheim claims that man is what he becomes, and the processes of becoming human are self-making. It must, however, find room for timeless metaphysical truth - the transhistorical possibilities of self-making - to avoid inconsistency. But this leaves man in an unresolved struggle between his infinite and finite aspects, thus rendering philosophy impossible. In response Existentialism with its view of human situation as self-choosing suggests a reality other than man, nature, or history which shares in the constitution of the human being. T.G.R.