Skepdick wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 2:48 pm
If you assert A and B are "exactly the same" (which is how you use the term "identical") you must have ignored anything that differentiates them.
Again, before you can assert that A and B are exactly the same, or that they are different, you have to CHOOSE what A and B represent.
You can't skip this step.
If A and B are apples WITHOUT their locations in space and time, and if they have exactly the same physical constitution, then I have ignored absolutely nothing that differentiates them, because there is nothing that differentiates them. I have merely ignored what does not constitute them, e.g. humans, animals, mountains, rivers, cities, locations in space, locations in time, etc.
Their locations in space and time, even though different, do not make A and B different because they do no belong to A and B, in the same exact way that Trump and Putin, although different, do not make A and B different because they do not belong to A and B.
Why did you choose to separate Trump from A and Putin from B?
Skepdick wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 2:48 pm
Is the set {1,2} "exactly the same" as the set {2,1}?
Yes - if you ignore the ordering. They have the same contents.
No - if you don't ignore the ordering. They have the same contents, but not the same ordering.
{ 1, 2 } and { 2, 1 } are two identical states that are described in a different way.
Sets have no order.
Sequences do.
( 1, 2 ) and ( 2, 1 ), being sequences, are not identical.
But { 1, 2 } and { 2, 1 }, being sets, are identical.