A Note on von Neumann Ordinals and Dependence

Abstract

This note defends the reduction of ordinals to pure sets against an argument put forward by Beau Madison Mount. In the first part I will defend the claim that dependence simpliciter can be reduced to immediate dependence and define a notion of predecessor dependence. In the second part I will provide and defend a way to model the dependence profile of ordinals akin to Mount’s proposal in terms of immediate dependence and predecessor dependence. I furthermore show that my alternative dependence profile allows us to single out the reduction of ordinals to von Neumann ordinals as the only viable set-theoretic reduction.