strict adherence to, or observance of, prescribed or traditional forms, as in music, poetry, and art.

Religion . strong attachment to external forms and observances.

Ethics . a doctrine that acts are in themselves right or wrong regardless of consequences.

Logic, Mathematics . a doctrine, which evolved from a proposal of David Hilbert, that mathematics, including the logic used in proofs, can be based on the formal manipulation of symbols without regard to their meaning.

adjective

academic , bookish , donnish , inkhorn , literary , pedantical , scholastic