Definition of "mathesis"

mathesis

/məˈθiːsɪs/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural matheses
1. (now rare) Mental calculation or discipline; science, especially mathematical learning.
  Quotations
  Forget the Boys, forget your loyalties to your Dead, first of all to Rebekah, for she, they, are but distractions, temporal, flesh, ever attempting to drag the Uranian Devotee back down out of his realm of pure Mathesis, of that which abides.
  1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
2. The science of establishing a systematic order for things. (After Foucault.)
  Quotations
  I’m using 'mathesis' — a universal science of measurement and order […]
  1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books;