Formalism
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The term formalism, and the derived formalist applied to followers of some type of formalism, has been very widely applied. This is particularly so, though not exclusively, in relation to artistic movements and criticism of the twentieth century (as one face of modernism and also in an adversarial position with respect to artistic modernism); and also in relation to philosophical issues, such as occur in the philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics.
In a word, the term is overloaded. It may be found used in many areas, where a distinction can be made between 'form' and 'content', and it is meaningful to point up an idea of privilege of form over content. The Chambers 1994 edition Dictionary indicates a pejorative quality giving formalist as "a person having an exaggerated regard to rules or established usages".
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Religion
Formalism in religion means an emphasis on ritual and observance, over their meanings.
Law
Template:Main Formalism is school of thought in law and jurisprudence which emphasises the fairness of process over substantive outcomes.
Criticism
In general in the study of the arts and literature, formalism refers to the style of criticism that focuses on artistic or literary techniques in themselves, in separation from the work's social and historical context.
Art criticism
Literary criticism
In contemporary discussions of literary theory, the school of criticism of I. A. Richards and his followers, traditionally the New Criticism, has sometimes been labelled 'formalist'. The formalist approach, in this sense, is a continuation of aspects of classical rhetori.
Russian formalism was a twentieth century school, based in Eastern Europe, with roots in linguistic studies and also theorising on fairy tales, in which content is taken as secondary since the tale 'is' the form, the princess 'is' the fairy-tale princess.
The Arts
The term is often used generally in the Arts, but has become a familiar term specific fields.
Poetry
In modern poetry, Formalist poets may be considered as the opposite of writers of free verse. These are just labels, and rarely sum up matters satisfactorily. 'Formalism' in poetry represents an attachment to poetry that recognises and uses schemes of rhyme and rhythm to create poetic effects and to innovate. To distingush it from archaic poetry the term 'neo-formalist' is sometimes used.
See for example:
- The Formalist, a literary magazine (now defunct) for formalist poetry
- New Formalism, a movement within the poetry of the United States.
Film
Template:Main In film studies, formalism is a trait in filmmaking, which overtly uses the language of film, such as editing, shot composition, camera movement, set design, etc., so as to emphasise the artificiality of the film experience.
Examples of formalist films may include Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad and Hitchcock's Blackmail.
Intellectual method
Formalism can be applied to a set of notations and rules for manipulating them which yield results in agreement with experiment or other techniques of calculation. These rules and notations may or may not have a corresponding mathematical semantics. In the case no mathematical semantics exists, the calculations are often said to be purely formal. See for example scientific formalism.
Mathematics
In the foundations of mathematics, formalism is associated with a certain rigorous mathematical method: see formal system. In common usage, a formalism means the out-turn of the effort towards formalisation of a given limited area. In other words, matters can be formally discussed once captured in a formal system, or commonly enough within something formalisable with claims to be one. Complete formalisation is in fact in the domain rather of computer science.
Formalism also more precisely refers to a certain school in the philosophy of mathematics, stressing axiomatic proofs through theorems specifically associated with David Hilbert. In the philosophy of mathematics, therefore, a formalist is a person who belongs to the school of formalism, which is a certain mathematical-philosophical doctrine descending from Hilbert.
Anthropology
In economic anthropology, formalism is the theoretical perspective that the principles of neoclassical economics can be applied to our understanding of all human societies.
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