Formalism (philosophy)

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. A formalist, with respect to some discipline, holds that there is no transcendent meaning to that discipline other than the literal content created by a practitioner. For example, formalists within mathematics claim that mathematics is no more than the symbols written down by the mathematician, which is based on logic and a few elementary rules alone. This is as opposed to non-formalists, within that field, who hold that there are some things inherently true, and are not, necessarily, dependent on the symbols within mathematics so much as a greater truth. Formalists within a discipline are completely concerned with "the rules of the game," as there is no other external truth that can be achieved beyond those given rules. In this sense, formalism lends itself well to disciplines based upon axiomatic systems.

Formalism

Formalism may refer to:

Formalism (art)

In art history, formalism is the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style—the way objects are made and their purely visual aspects. In painting, formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape, texture, and other perceptual aspects rather than iconography or the historical and social context. At its extreme, formalism in art history posits that everything necessary to comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, that is, its conceptual aspect is considered to be of secondary importance. Anti-formalism in art would assert the opposite ascription of respectively primary and secondary importance.

Background

The philosopher Nick Zangwill of Glasgow University has defined formalism in art as referring to those properties "that are determined solely by sensory or physical properties—so long as the physical properties in question are not relations to other things and other times." The philosopher and architect Branko Mitrovic has defined formalism in art and architecture as "the doctrine that states that the aesthetic qualities of works of visual art derive from the visual and spatial properties."

Legal formalism

Legal formalism is a legal positivist view in philosophy of law and jurisprudence. While Jeremy Bentham's legal positivism can be seen as appertaining to the legislature, legal formalism appertains to the Judge; that is, formalism does not (as positivism does) suggest that the substantive justice of a law is irrelevant, but rather, that in a democracy, that is a question for the legislature to address, not the Judge.

Definition

The most obvious characteristic of legal formalism is the purported separation of legal reasoning (or "application" of norms to facts) from normative or policy considerations. The "formalist fiction" is that the process that produced the legal norms has exhausted normative and policy considerations; accordingly, law can be seen as a more or less "closed" normative system. Thus formalistic logic would tend to work well with the Aristotelian logic of definition by closed sets of necessary and sufficient conditions, yet is deficient when applied to areas where definition by "family resemblance" (Wittgenstein) is more suitable. For example, in private law, such tight systems as the law of negotiable instruments (for the U.S. example see Uniform Commercial Code, Article 3) are frequently described as "formalistic" because decisions rest on a relatively closed-set of logically-organized rules; while contract law tends to be more "relational" than formalistic as it deals with much wider sets of relations and cases. Legal formalism thus needs not be a manifestation of positivistic commitments, but can be justified in some areas on functionalist grounds.

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental nature of reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The Ancient Greek word φιλοσοφία (philosophia) was probably coined by Pythagoras and literally means "love of wisdom" or "friend of wisdom". Philosophy has been divided into many sub-fields. It has been divided chronologically (e.g., ancient and modern); by topic (the major topics being epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics); and by style (e.g., analytic philosophy).

As a method, philosophy is often distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its questioning, critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. As a noun, the term "philosophy" can refer to any body of knowledge. Historically, these bodies of knowledge were commonly divided into natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysical philosophy. In casual speech, the term can refer to any of "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group," (e.g., "Dr. Smith's philosophy of parenting").

Philosophy (album)

Philosophy is an album by the British dance music duo Coldcut released in 1993. Vocals on this album are by Janis Alexander.

Track listing

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Philosophy (journal)

Philosophy is the scholarly journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. It is designed to be intelligible to the non-specialist reader and has been in continuous publication for almost 90 years. It is published by Cambridge University Press and is currently edited by Anthony O'Hear.

The journal was established in 1926 "to build bridges between specialist philosophers and a wider educated public." Each issue contains a "New Books" section and an editorial on a topic of philosophical or public interest.

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