Propositional Complexes, not Propositions

by JLS
for the GC

From a recent cartoon strip:

Dagwood: I still don't see why it was such a big deal that you were wearing the same outfit that Lindsey Rogers wore at the banquet.

Blondie: That isn't what happened at all, Dagwood... Lindsey Rogers was wearing the same outtif that _I_ was wearing at the banquet!

The idea would be

if we define a relation as symmetric

R(a, b) iff R(b, a)

So, indeed,

'... is wearing the same dress as ...' seems symmetrical enough.

YET

in an ordered pair, like "(a, b)", the order is NOT particularly random. It is particular. As when we say, "in a particular order" (versus, "in no particular order").

So

R(a,b)

expresses a different propositional complex from

R(b,a)

even if the things turn out to be extensionally equivalent. Or something.