Reality, Possibility, and Time

This paper develops a single line of inquiry across several problems that are often treated separately: whether an unobserved event is real, whether an experienced choice establishes alternative possibilities, whether one observed history decides between determinism and indeterminism, whether something can arise from absolute nothing, whether an empty future differs from a non-existent future, and whether relativity of simultaneity undermines observer-independent ontology. The paper distinguishes ontological status from epistemic access, consideration from real possibility, and logical completeness from cosmological knowledge. It gives conditional proofs of several underdetermination results. These proofs are rigorous only relative to explicitly stated model classes and evidential rules; they do not establish a universal metaphysical undecidability theorem. The final relativistic analysis shows that an observer-independent status is incompatible with the additional rule that every frame’s simultaneity is an absolute existence boundary. The result is a disciplined map of what follows, what does not follow, and which premises remain philosophical commitments.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-10-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23345875
Primary Topic
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Reality, Possibility, and Time

Dieter Eigler
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
article

Reality, Possibility, and Time

Dieter Eigler
article en

Abstract

This paper develops a single line of inquiry across several problems that are often treated separately: whether an unobserved event is real, whether an experienced choice establishes alternative possibilities, whether one observed history decides between determinism and indeterminism, whether something can arise from absolute nothing, whether an empty future differs from a non-existent future, and whether relativity of simultaneity undermines observer-independent ontology. The paper distinguishes ontological status from epistemic access, consideration from real possibility, and logical completeness from cosmological knowledge. It gives conditional proofs of several underdetermination results. These proofs are rigorous only relative to explicitly stated model classes and evidential rules; they do not establish a universal metaphysical undecidability theorem. The final relativistic analysis shows that an observer-independent status is incompatible with the additional rule that every frame’s simultaneity is an absolute existence boundary. The result is a disciplined map of what follows, what does not follow, and which premises remain philosophical commitments.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
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