Existential Realism on Trial I - A Series of Critical Q&A Stress-Tests: Collapse Tests Across Rival Ontologies

This paper introduces a structured collapse-test methodology for evaluating metaphysical theories of time and applies it to Existential Realism (ER) in order to test its ontological distinctiveness. Metaphysical theories can fail in two fundamentally different ways: either by (i) collapsing into an already established rival ontology or by (ii) remaining formally distinct while proving explanatorily idle. The present study addresses only the first failure mode: identity and distinctness.