Irreversible Commitment as the Basis of Preference

This work introduces a foundational account of preference grounded in irreversible time. Rather than treating preference as valuation, ranking, desire, or utility, it is modeled as a form of irreversible self-binding required to preserve directional coherence across time. Systems that cannot rewind or fully revoke prior commitments must bind themselves to future courses of action by permanently excluding incompatible alternatives. On this account, preference arises not from comparative assessment, but from the necessity of committing under conditions of temporal irreversibility. Preference is thus identified with the structural act of reducing future optionality in order to maintain coherent continuation. This…