formalism

[fawr-muh-liz-uhm]

noun

1. strict adherence to, or observance of, prescribed or traditional forms, as in music, poetry, and art.

2. Religion.,  strong attachment to external forms and observances.

3. Ethics.,  a doctrine that acts are in themselves right or wrong regardless of consequences.

4. Logic, Mathematics.,  a doctrine, which evolved from a proposal of David Hilbert, that mathematics, including the logic used in proofs, can be based on the formal manipulation of symbols without regard to their meaning.

formalism

/ ˈfɔːməˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. scrupulous or excessive adherence to outward form at the expense of inner reality or content

2. 1. the mathematical or logical structure of a scientific argument as distinguished from its subject matter

   2. the notation, and its structure, in which information is expressed

3. theatre a stylized mode of production

4. (in Marxist criticism) excessive concern with artistic technique at the expense of social values, etc

5. the philosophical theory that a mathematical statement has no meaning but that its symbols, regarded as physical objects, exhibit a structure that has useful applications Compare logicism intuitionism

Other Word Forms

• formalistic adjective
• formalist noun
• formalistically adverb
• antiformalist noun
• nonformalism noun
• nonformalistic adjective
• unformalistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of formalism¹

First recorded in 1830–40; formal ¹ + -ism

Example Sentences

And because of that, there’s a very rigid formalism to it, on just the formatting level.

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They used the matrix formalism combined with the conventional inverse problem-solving methodology to find the optimal performance and the final configuration of the solar device.

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It doesn’t have to be this way, but deeply engrained formalism in court plays right into Trump’s hands.

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What followed was investigation of the surprisingly far-reaching consequences of the formalism.

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“Is there a universal basis for selection? Is there a more quantitative formalism underlying this conjectured conceptual equivalence—a formalism rooted in the transfer of information?,” they ask of the world’s disparate phenomena.

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Related Words

• decorum