Formalism Formalism is the mathematical school of thought which holds that mathematics consists of symbols, rules for combining those symbols, some minimal number of assumptions or axioms, and certain agreed upon rules of inference. Formalism was introduced in the... more
Formalism // n. Any fully explicit notational device or set of such devices. The term can be applied, for example, to the Kleene star, to the X-bar system or to the entire framework of GPSG.... more
