the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics | the practice of scrupulous adherence to prescribed or external forms |
a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school | (philosophy) the philosophical theory that formal (logical or mathematical) statements have no meaning but that its symbols (regarded as physical entities) exhibit a form that has useful applications |
any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation | the doctrine that formal structure rather than content is what should be represented |