Abstract The article examines the multifaceted activity of Evgeny Polivanov, whose contribution to formation new linguistics and formal method continues provoke debate. specificity Polivanov’s main ideas principles, in comparison with mainstream formalists (Shklovsky, Tynianov) consisted reliance on heritage positivism (Baudouin, historian Kareev), supplemented by a kind sociological cultural “...

Mathematical formalism is the view that numbers are “signs” and arithmetic like a game played with such signs. Frege’s colleague Thomae defended using an analogy chess, critique of this has had major influence on discussions in analytic philosophy about signs, rules, meaning, mathematics. Here I offer new interpretation as by his predecessors, paying close attention to mathematical details hist...