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formalism
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formalism

philosophy of mathematics
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History

formalism, in mathematics, school of thought introduced by the 20th-century German mathematician David Hilbert, which holds that all mathematics can be reduced to rules for manipulating formulas without any reference to the meanings of the formulas. Formalists contend that it is the mathematical symbols themselves, and not any meaning that might be ascribed to them, that are the basic objects of mathematical thought. Compare intuitionism; logicism.