1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 60 The object matter, or signall means of Divining (by things in heaven, or on earth).

1653 Στερέωμα 24 Now this power, though it is, or should be always found in some respects in conjunction with the two former, yet It differs from them in regard of its object matter.

1851 H. L. Mansel Prolegomena Logica iii. 85 To think actually, we must think about something; this something, the object-matter of thought,..must in the first instance be supplied through..the senses.

a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) I. iii. 51 The first and second [definitions] define philosophy from its object-matter,—that which it is about.

1884 tr. H. Lotze Logic 28 A synthesis in which the..requirement would be completely satisfied in regard to any given object-matter.

a1915 J. C. Wilson Statement & Inference (1926) II. iv. vi. 636 The methods of all the special sciences are the object-matter of logic; it neither makes them nor conducts them, but studies them.

1952 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 17 628/1 Znaniecki..set out to..show the fundamental differences in the nature of the object-matter and the special methodologies between the natural and cultural sciences.

1972 Ethics 83 2 Any truly rational attack upon the problems of knowledge and of action..must at least provisionally rest upon a pluralistic conception of the object matter.