Time Does Not Flow: A Relational–Process Interpretation of Time Measurement and Its Limits in the Philosophy of Physics

This article develops a relational-process interpretation of time, according to which temporal language orders, compares, and measures physical changes rather than denoting an independently flowing substance or causal agent. It distinguishes an operational claim about clocks, a claim about the lack of an observable flow of time, and the stronger ontological hypothesis that relations among physical processes are fundamental. The discussion critically examines relativistic clock comparisons, the thermodynamic arrow of time, and the problem of time in canonical quantum gravity. The article argues that the predictive success of mathematical descriptions does not, by itself, settle the ontology of time. It also considers objections to relational accounts and outlines the requirements for a future physical process-based model. The contribution is conceptual and philosophical rather than a new experimentally validated dynamical theory. Author: Wiktor Krumin, independent researcher, Gdańsk, Poland. Note: This independent philosophical paper is available in Polish and English. Both documents are language versions of the same work and have not undergone external journal peer review.