The metaphysics of time in Edith Stein's Finite and Eternal Being

Finite and Eternal Being is Edith Stein’s final work in systematic metaphysics, the culmination of her attempt to reconcile the insights of phenomenology with the metaphysics of the medieval scholastics. Here, I focus on a part of her system: her metaphysics of time. Stein has fascinating answers to these questions: is the present moment metaphysically distinguished, and if so, how? How do objects in time relate to time, and do different kinds of objects in time relate to time in different ways? On my reading, Stein endorses a non-standard version of the A-theory that mixes elements of presentism and the moving spotlight view. But she denies that there is only one way to be. In contemporary jargon, Stein endorses ontological pluralism. More specifically, different ways of being in time correspond to different ways of being.