| 释义 |
formalist, n. and a.|ˈfɔːməlɪst|
[f. as prec. + -ist.]
A. n.
†1. A formal person, a solemn pretender to wisdom. Obs.
1607–12Bacon Ess., Of Seeming Wise (Arb.) 214 There are in pointe of wisedome..that doe nothing or litle verie solemlye..It is a ridiculous thing..to see what shiftes theis Formalists have..to make superficies to seeme body, that hath depth and bulk.
†2. One who formally adheres to the prevailing system; a time-server in religion. Obs.
1609Downam Chr. Liberty 75 Do not many..thinke themselues the more religious, for refusing obedience..to the lawes, and censure others as formalists and time-seruers? 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iv. iv. i. v, New Gods..will have new ceremonies..to which every wise man as a good formalist should accommodate himself. 1632D. Lupton Lond. & Co. Carbonadoed, Exchange (1857) 276 A great Formalist. and an hazardable temporizer.
3. a. One who is excessively attached to forms; a stickler for fixed rule, etiquette, routine, or ceremonial. b. One who has the form of religion without the power.
1637Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. iii. iv. 47 The Ceremonies are Idols to Formalists. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. (1851) 316 Though the formalist will say, what no decency in Gods worship? 1706–7Reflex. upon Ridicule 183 Those Formalists who demand Explications of the least ambiguous Word. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 638 Oh ye cold-hearted, frozen, formalists! On such a theme, 'tis impious to be calm. 1814Scott Drama (1874) 221 The former may be called the formalist of dramatic criticism. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 19 Nobody..except the solemn formalists at the Spanish embassy, thought his youth an objection to his promotion. 1870Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xxviii. 1 Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot.
†4. Sc. ? An authority on legal forms. Obs.
1612Spottiswood Let. in Scot Apol. Narr. (1846) 236 To make choice of my Lord Secretary to be our formalist and adviser of our acts.
5. A follower or advocate of formalism (3, 4, 5).
1913tr. L. E. J. Brouwer in Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. XX. 83 For the formalist..mathematical exactness consists merely in the method of developing the series of relations, and is independent of the significance one might want to give to the relations or the entities which they relate. 1926Encycl. Brit. III. 635/2 The ‘Formalists’ held that the naturalistic theatre was not art, but a soulless attempt to photograph life. 1934P. A. Markov Soviet Theatre vii. 119 The ‘formalists’..stressed the need for freeing the actor from the bonds of realism or æstheticism. 1941Courant & Robbins What is Math.? iv. 216 The clash between the intuitionists and the formalists has been much publicized by passionate partisans of these schools. 1954A. J. Ayer Philos. Essays ix. 221 The formalist aims to get rid of numbers by construing statements about numbers as statements about signs. 1955V. Erlich Russ. Formalism i. vi. 95 By focussing sharply on the specific aims and methods of literary scholarship, the Formalists had induced their Marxian opponents to get off the high horse of dialectical generalizations. 1967A. S. Gillette Introd. Scenic Design xii. 165 The goal of the formalists originally was to return to a completely functional theatre. 1971Sci. Amer. Aug. 92/2 A Formalist is likely to say that the real-number line is whatever we define it to be.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to formalism, in various senses; formalistic.
1900B. Russell Philos. Leibniz xiv. 170 But as a method of pursuing philosophy, it had the formalist defect which results from a belief in analytic propositions, and which led Spinoza to employ a geometrical method. 1926Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 2nd Ser. XXV. 339, I hold that mathematics is part of logic, and so belong to..the logical school as opposed to the formalist and intuitionist schools. 1931K. E. Kirk Vision of God iii. iii. 132 The characteristic dangers of Judaism..were exactly the dangers that formalist codification tends to foster. 1955V. Erlich Russ. Formalism i. iii. 47 In Petersburg..the first steps of the Formalist movement were marked by a close alliance with the poetic avant-garde. 1967G. H. Hamilton Painting & Sculpt. in Europe 5 The scope of strictly formalist criticism has undoubtedly been enlarged by surrealism and by the doctrines of social realism. 1970Times Lit. Suppl. 23 July 787/2 The Formalist philosophy was an exemplary one in several respects. |