The dialectic of content and form, and the problem of formalization

Author(s):  S.N. Mareev, Moscow international higher business school, MIRBIS, Moscow, Russia

Issue:  Volume 42, №24

Rubric:  Logics, Methodology and Philosophy of Science

Annotation:  The article shows the role played by Hegel’s distinction between formal and substantial form in solving the problem of formalization in modern science, primarily in the formalization of mathematics. The author points to L.S. Vygotsky’s analysis of the relationship of external form, or “formal form”, to the material, which is able to explain the nature of formalism in art. In connection with the problem of formalization in mathematics, the dialectics of the transformation of a substantial causal dependence into a formal logical dependence is considered, that is connected with the “emptiness” of formalized logical deductive systems.

Keywords:  formal form, substantial form, formalism, formalization, causal dependence, logical dependence, formalized deductive systems, Aristotle, Hegel, Vygotsky, Gödel

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