Domain of discourse

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The domain of discourse is usually identified in the preliminaries,
so that there is no need in the further treatment to specify each time
the range of the relevant variables.[1]
Many logicians distinguish, sometimes only tacitly, between the domain of a science
and the universe of discourse of a formalization of the science.[2]

The term "universe of discourse" generally refers to the collection of objects
being discussed in a specific discourse.

In model-theoretical semantics, a universe of discourse is the set of entities
that a model is based on.

The concept universe of discourse is generally attributed to Augustus De Morgan (1846)
but the name was used for the first time by George Boole (1854) on page 42 of
his Laws of Thought.

The concept, probably discovered independently by Boole in 1847, played a crucial role in his philosophy of logic especially in his principle of wholistic reference.

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