In art, formalism privileges aesthetics over any other facet or particularity.
Formalism consists of rigorously applying, and without deviating from its precepts, a certain doctrine or methodology in the development of a research or teaching process. The term, however, has various uses depending on the area.
Within the context of art , formalism is the current that exalts the value of aesthetics above other considerations. That is why formalists believe that art should be judged by its aesthetic condition beyond social or ethical aspects linked to the work.
Formalism, on the other hand, places great importance on the formal (abstract) characteristics of creations, such as form, structure or composition.
Formalism in literature
For literature , formalism is a trend that was born in Russian territory around 1914 and is based on understanding literary works as a particular structure of language . This means that literature, for formalist theorists and critics, is not useful from a pragmatic point of view.
Within this aforementioned Russian formalism we cannot miss the opportunity to mention the one who is considered to be its father. This is Víktor Shklovski who has also gone down in history for having created OPOYAZ , the Society for the Study of Poetic Language, within which some of the most important theories within that aforementioned formalism were developed.
However, we should not overlook the figure of the also Russian Roman Jakobson who developed a wide collection of works on the subject at hand. In addition, he stood out for the creation of a series of theories that fundamentally revolved around poetics and stylistics. The main expositions made by said author are included in the article entitled Linguistics and Poetics , which was published in 1960.
The notion of formalism is also used in the field of literature.
The concept in mathematics
Statistics, information theory and computer science, among other disciplines, speak of a formal system to refer to a grammar that is used in the development of models.
In mathematics, a formal system (also known as an axiomatic system ) is an artificial construction that is formed from symbols linked together, allowing the creation of chains that can be manipulated according to certain rules to create, in turn, new chains. These formal systems are used to achieve representations of different facets of a reality.
In this specific field, one cannot talk about it without referring to David Hilbert . This was an indisputable figure within the mathematical field, both during the 19th and 20th centuries, since thanks to his theories and approaches the appearance of the aforementioned formalism was promoted. In this way, it was established that the aforementioned mathematics was not only a game but also a completely autonomous thinking activity.
Such was his intellectual capacity within the aforementioned field that thanks to him, vital issues such as mathematical logic, the theory of demonstration and even the difference between general relativity and quantum mechanics were also founded.
Formalism, finally, is also a school within the philosophy of mathematics that develops axiomatic type proofs in theorems.