From Substance to Relation: Three Paradigm Shifts in Physics and Their Falsifiability

Abstract

Physics is commonly regarded as the science of “material substances and their laws of motion.” Yet, returning strictly to the operational essence of experimental science, physics has never verified any absolute substance independently of relational interactions. Taking Newtonian mechanics, general relativity, and Temporal Field Theory (TFT) as a historical–logical thread, this paper traces three successive paradigm shifts at the levels of ontology, mathematical structure, and causal arrow. It argues that the contemporary impasses in gravitation and cosmology originate epistemologically from mistaking relations stable within a given scale for a priori substances. A monistic relational resolution is presented, together with four sharp experimental falsification criteria.