formalism

American  

[fawr-muh-liz-uhm] / ˈfɔr məˌlɪz əm /

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.

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formalism British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of formalism

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

Example Sentences

“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.

From Salon • Oct. 22, 2023

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

From Science Daily • Oct. 20, 2023

But art thrives on contradictions, and the age-old tensions between faith and desire, between dogmatic formalism and wild, unruly feeling, were precisely what made Davies such a magnificently expressive artist.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2023

But disillusionment quickly set in: Mochizuki had spent 20 years single-handedly developing no fewer than 500 pages of a completely new formalism that other experts needed to decipher.

From Scientific American • Jul. 28, 2023

It seemed as if some penetrating lucidity permitted her to see the reality of things beyond any formalism.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Related Words

• decorum