Observational Coherence and Immutable Temporal History: Reconciling COE and the Theory of Global Time

This paper investigates the relation between two frameworks addressing the structure of scientific observation and temporal order: Coherent Observational Epistemology (COE) and the Theory of Global Time (TGT). The apparent tension between them reflects a deeper philosophical problem concerning the relation between epistemic reconstruction and ontological temporal structure. COE analyzes the conditions under which heterogeneous observational sequences produced by independent observational localities can be integrated into a coherent evidential structure. In this framework, global observational order arises as an epistemic construction resulting from structural compatibility between local observational practices. The Theory of Global Time approaches temporal structure from a different perspective. Rather than treating time as a pre-existing coordinate or metric parameter, it interprets time as a canonical ordering relation reconstructed from observer-registered events. Temporal history is thus understood as a chain within an ordered structure generated by reception events, and once such a canonical order has been reconstructed it cannot be retroactively modified. The paper argues that the perceived conflict between these views arises from a conflation of epistemic and ontological levels. COE governs the epistemic alignment of observations, while TGT constrains the ontological structure of reconstructed temporal history. Once these levels are distinguished, the two frameworks become mutually compatible. On this basis the paper introduces a structural principle—the Temporal Reconstruction Constraint—according to which observational reconstruction may refine or extend the accessible event structure but must preserve the canonical order of previously reconstructed history. The result is a layered account of scientific inference in which observational practice, epistemic reconstruction, and temporal ontology play distinct but interrelated roles. This perspective contributes to philosophical debates on the nature of temporal order, the epistemology of scientific observation, and the relation between observational practices and temporal ontology.