Emergent Time and Causal Orientation.

This preprint develops the temporal sector of the Theory of Structural Articulation (TSA). It shows how time can be constructed from pregeometric relaxation rather than assumed as a primitive coordinate. The main achievements are: a monotone structural counter of change is constructed; this counter is connected to relaxation, diffusion and thermodynamic orientation; the thermodynamic arrow is derived as a projection of structural monotonicity; compatibility with microscopic reversibility and fluctuation theorems is established; measurable time is formulated through macroscopic clock observables; finite causal propagation is obtained at the interface between the structural substrate and emergent geometry; and the same temporal framework is connected to thermal time, covariant dynamics and the quantum Wasserstein–Madelung representation. The manuscript is self-contained at the level of the temporal construction and uses geometric, spectral and diffusion inputs from companion TSA works.