Formalism

The term formalism describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy. A practitioner of formalism is called a formalist.

Religion

Formalism in religion means an emphasis on ritual and observance, over their meanings.

Law

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

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

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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