objectively, adv.
(əbˈdʒɛktɪvlɪ)
[f. objective a. + -ly2.]
In an objective manner or relation: in senses 1–3 opposed to subjectively in various senses.
† 1. a. In relation to its object; as to the object of the action. Obs.
| 1624 Bp. R. Montagu New Gagg 133 Cyril restrayneth..‘thou shalt not covet or desire’, unto one particular Act, objectively, the not-lusting after or desiring of a Woman. 1631 J. Burges Answ. Rejoined Pref. 36 The people..worshipped God and the King: the ceremonie was materially the same; but objectively different; one Civill, the other Sacred. 1673 H. More App. Antid. Idol. 17 He must..bow towards the Cherubins objectively, and not meerly circumstantially. 1698 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 167 That love whereby a man loves God, taking the Term objectively. |
† b. By means of, or in the way of, an ‘objective cause’; by the attraction of some object or end. (See objective 1 b.) Obs.
| 1675 Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 164 Some think that Christ by his hunger did objectively allure Satan to tempt him, that so he might overcome him. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. 170 That which it self being moved, (objectively, or by Appetite and Desire of the First Good) moveth other things. |
† 2. As an object of consciousness, as presented to or perceived by the mind (not as it is in itself).
| a 1617 P. Bayne Lect. (1634) 315 Not from any inward habit..but from some external suavities objectively apprehended. 1642 W. Price Serm. 19 Our Creed is objectively called our faith. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 120 The Basilisk..receiveth the rayes of his Antipathy and venemous emissions which objectively move his sense. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §3 The Divine Intellect doth understand things by their Idea's, which are..the things themselves as they are objectively represented to the understanding. 1682 H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 177 As existent objectively, not really. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Objective, A thing is said to exist objectively, objectivè, when it exists no otherwise than in being known; or by being an object of the mind. |
3. As an object of consciousness, in distinction from the mind or conscious subject; in relation to what is external to the mind; externally, really, in actual outward fact.
| 1796 [see subjectively adv. 4]. 1798 A. F. M. Willich Elem. Critical Philos. 6 Our knowledge is called objectively true, in so far as objects must be perceived by every other being, in the same manner in which we represent them to ourselves. 1817 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXXXIII. 461 The manner in which the thing becomes a phænomenon..is explicable only subjectively, not objectively. 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) II. xlii. 737 In the language of Kant, that exists objectively which lies without the understanding or which the understanding knows by looking beyond itself. 1855 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. i. vi. 122 What is objectively a nervous action and subjectively a feeling. 1879 Gd. Words 30 Any miracle..ascribed to our Lord was objectively real. |
† 4. By way of objection or adverse reason. Obs.
| 1593 R. Harvey Philad. 40 Hee allowed his fathers lawes for his time, lesse any man should objectiuely quarrell with him. 1642 Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 149 Let me here by way of anticipation prevent that which will else come in objectively upon me. |
5. Gram. In the objective case or relation.
| [Cf. quot. 1698 in sense 1.] 1824 [see objective A. 7]. 1881 Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 24) Index, Possessive case..used objectively, 72. |