Path–Attractor Compatibility: Reconciling Local Freedom, Collapse, and Deterministic Dynamics

A longstanding tension in the foundations of physics concerns the coexistence of deterministic(or unitary) dynamics with the apparent reality of choice, causation, collapse, and irreversible destruction. Standard responses either deny the physical significance of freedom, modify dynamicallaws, or relocate the problem to metaphysics. This paper identifies a structural distinction betweenmetastable macroscopic trajectories (paths) and globally constrained end states (attractors) and argues that its absence underlies much of the tension. We show that local degrees of freedom can alter,destabilize, and irreversibly eliminate particular trajectories without modifying the global attractorfixed by deterministic constraints. Collapse is thereby interpreted as loss of metastability ratherthan as a violation of determinism or unitarity. On this basis, we provide a structurally consistentaccount of causal efficacy, historical collapse, and responsibility within fully deterministic dynamics. We further extend this analysis to quantum mechanics, arguing that decoherence generatesmetastable macroscopic sectors within globally unitary evolution and that ontological commitmentattaches to dynamically persistent structure rather than to arbitrary Hilbert-space decomposition.The framework introduces no stochastic postulates and no modifications of physical law, but insteadclarifies the structural level at which freedom, collapse, and irreversibility operate.