Relational Ontology and Cosmology: Reframing the Big Bang, Time, and Cosmological Structure

This theoretical note develops the cosmological implications of the Dynamic Fractal Theorem of Relation (DFTR) within the register of philosophy of science. It does not propose a new physical model. It reorganizes the ontological assumptions that structure how physical questions are formed. DFTR holds that relation is prior to objects: what we call objects are stabilized configurations within relational dynamics, not entities that exist independently and then enter into relation. It further proposes that a single structural operation—relational coherence, rupture, and reconstitution—recurs across scales, from quantum systems to cosmological regimes. From this perspective, the standard cosmological question “what existed before the Big Bang?” is malformed because it presupposes objects as primary. The generative question becomes: under what conditions can objects be constituted at all? This shift allows the Big Bang to be reframed not as an origin, but as a reconstitution event following the collapse of a prior relational regime. Cosmological constants are therefore interpreted as inherited structural conditions rather than arbitrary or necessary givens. The paper also advances an account of time as an emergent property of relational strain, where temporal direction corresponds to irreversible divergence in relational structure, and disappearance of time at singularities follows from complete relational collapse. Across domains, including quantum entanglement and ecological regime shifts, empirical findings are shown to be consistent with a relational ontology in which properties and structures emerge through interaction rather than preceding it. Finally, the paper introduces repair capacity (or viability capacity) as an untracked variable in physics, proposing that differences in a system’s ability to metabolize relational strain may produce measurable differences in temporal dynamics near rupture thresholds. The contribution of DFTR is not to replace existing physical theories, but to identify and remove ontological assumptions embedded in their questions, thereby opening new lines of inquiry into the conditions under which structured form, persistence, and transformation become possible.