Definition of "formalists" [formalists]

• Plural form of formalist. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "I'm not arguing that everything the Realists said about the "formalists" is incorrect, but that we have a serious misperception of what people actually thought about law during the formalist period."
• "The "formalists" or entomologists hold that the natural flies actually on the water should be studied and imitated by the fly-maker, down to the most minute particulars."
• "Certain apparently defensible prejudices that prevail in the minds of even advanced musical critics against the idea of Form in music, originate in a very manifest mistake on the part of the "formalists" themselves, who (I refer to unimpassioned theorists and advocates of rigid old scholastic rules) place too narrow a construction upon Form, and define it with such rigor as to leave no margin whatever for the exercise of free fancy and emotional sway."