Determinative Potential Theory

A Metaphysical Framework for Determinacy, Irreversibility, and Cosmological Order

Abstract

This article develops Determinative Potential Theory (DPT), a structural metaphysical framework explaining how systems transition from symmetric coexistence of mutually exclusive possibilities to single-valued realized outcomes accompanied by irreversible traces. The theory addresses conceptual problems concerning determinacy, temporal order, and cosmological directionality. Three axioms—finite termination, intralayer single-value fixation, and non-zero rollback cost—yield propositions establishing a poset of determinative events, the emergence of temporal order from structural dependency, the impossibility of reversion, and the constraining role of early determinative events. The article compares DPT with modal metaphysics, quantum interpretations, structural realism, process philosophy, and entropy-based theories of time. DPT provides a unified metaphysical explanation of determinacy and cosmic structure, relevant to cosmology and natural philosophy.