| 释义 |
formalism|ˈfɔːməlɪz(ə)m|
[f. formal a. + -ism. Not in Johnson, Todd, or Richardson.]
1. Strict or excessive adherence to prescribed forms; an instance or variety of this.
1840in Smart. 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xiii. (1879) 151 Useless formalism! which lets through the reckless..and only excludes the honest and the conscientious. 1852A. Jameson Leg. Madonna Introd. (1857) 25 The rigid formalism of the degenerate Greek school. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) III. xxii. 12 Completely enchained by their dogmatic formalisms. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 273 The constitutional formalism of three reigns.
2. a. The disposition to exalt what is formal or outward at the expense of what is spiritual; the practice of using forms of worship and of religious profession without real devotion or conviction.
1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 219 Formalism does not lie in these outward things themselves—it consists in the spirit in which they are used. 1878Morley Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 201 The cant and formalism of any other degenerate form of active faith. 1883Froude Short Stud. IV. ii. iv. 208 The family devotions were long, but there was no formalism.
b. Theology. (See quot. 1957.)
1931K. E. Kirk Vision of God i. 8 Formalism, as we have defined it hitherto,—the demand for a definite rule of life—has rigorism as one of its branches. 1937O. Wyon tr. Brunner's Divine Imperative vii. 65 The fact that the knowledge of God has become obscure also leads to the fatal dilemma—either the formalism of the legalistic ethic..or eudaemonistic materialism. 1957Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 513 Formalism... Of theories of ethics which look for the ground of moral action in the form of the moral law alone..without reference to any specific purposes or values which it is desired through the action to achieve or realize.
3. Math.
a. The conception of pure mathematics as the manipulation according to certain formal rules of symbols that are intrinsically meaningless.
1913tr. L. E. J. Brouwer in Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. XX. 82 On what grounds the conviction of the unassailable exactness of mathematical laws is based has for centuries been an object of philosophical research, and two points of view may here be distinguished, intuitionism (largely French) and formalism (largely German). 1933M. Black Nature of Math. 148 ‘Formalism’ has always been the working attitude of a group of practising mathematicians rather than a fully explicit philosophy. 1940E. T. Bell Devel. Math. xxiii. 527 Formalism denies logicalism and seeks to controvert the conclusions of intuitionism. 1970H. Weyl Appreciation in C. Reid Hilbert 270 Hilbert's formalism restores the principle of the excluded middle which was the main target of Brouwer's criticism.
b. (See quot. 1940.)
1940E. T. Bell Devel. Math. xiii. 262 ‘Formalism’ in analysis means manipulation of formulas involving infinite processes without sufficient attention to convergence and mathematical existence. 1947Courant & Robbins What is Math.? (ed. 4) p. vii, There exists the danger of frustration and disillusionment unless students and teachers try to look beyond mathematical formalism and manipulation and to grasp the real essence of mathematics. 1964H. Eves Introd. Hist. Math. (rev. ed.) xii. 360 Euler's work represents the outstanding example of eighteenth-century formalism.
4. Theatre. A movement originating c 1890 in Russia which, at first a reaction against excessive naturalism in stage production, after the Revolution led to excessive emphasis on symbolism and stylization.
1927J. Dolman Art Play Prod. xviii. 396 Most of the attempts at formalism today are really compromises—accidental compromises with stylization..or intentional compromises with realism or symbolism. 1931Selden & Sellman Stage Scenery i. i. 28 Among the more popular styles..are: Realism,..Stylization,..Formalism, the mode of using forms which mark a place for action but do not attempt to represent or suggest any given locality. 1966A. Nicoll Devel. Theatre (ed. 5) i. 3 We are here [sc. in the Nō plays] confronted by a theatre in which formalism is dominant. 1967A. S. Gillette Introd. Scenic Design xii. 165 Theatres with conventional proscenium arches have been adapted to formalism by the substitution of drapery backgrounds for scenery.
5. a. The theory held by a Russian literary group in existence between 1916 and 1930 that technique and form are both the means to and the goal of artistic creation. b. Subsequently, a term often used pejoratively in Communist criticism to denote an artist's concentration on form at the expense of social reality and content.
1943V. Ughet tr. Miliukov's Outl. Russ. Culture ii. 118 It [sc. Socialist Realism] was directed against ‘formalism’ with its tendency to degenerate into mere aesthetic preoccupation with literary forms. 1955V. Erlich Russ. Formalism i. i. 4 Formalism was..the first critical movement in Russia which attacked in systematic fashion the problems of rhythm and meter, of style and composition. 1957C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon xxi. 73 The Political Dictionary defines formalism as ‘putting to the forefront the outer side of a question, the detachment of form from content’. Ibid. 75 The charge of formalism will commonly mean that a novelist has devoted too much attention to plot, characterization and description, and that his work lacks the requisite inspirational quality. 1962Listener 19 July 115/1 The best circles in the West are now almost exclusively preoccupied with technical means for their own sake, with what their colleagues on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain would describe as ‘formalism’.
6. [cf. G. formalismus in same sense (Hilbert et al. 1928, in Math. Ann. XCVIII. 1–30).] A particular mathematical theory or mode of description of a physical situation or effect.
1934Ann. Math. XXXV. 29 (heading) On an algebraic generalization of the quantum mechanical formalism. 1955J. A. Wheeler in W. Pauli Niels Bohr 177 These circumstances make it appropriate to discuss the spontaneous fission rates of even very heavy nuclei in terms of the liquid drop formalism. 1968C. G. Kuper Introd. Theory Superconductivity xii. 193 In the field-theoretical approach to the theory of solids, quasiparticles enter the formalism in precisely the same way as ‘physical’ particles enter the formalism of elementary particle physics. 1970Nature 12 Sept. 1087/2 A fresh attempt to impose a simple formalism on the kinetics and equilibrium of the oxygenation reaction. |