perfectibility
Capacity for improvement
Perfectibility is the capacity to be made perfect or to achieve perfection through improvement.
The term appears most often in philosophical and political contexts, where it describes the belief that humans or society can progress toward an ideal state: Enlightenment thinkers embraced the perfectibility of man.
The concept implies ongoing refinement rather than a fixed nature—that flaws are not permanent but can be corrected through education, reform, or effort.
Positive change in quality
- developmentProgress toward maturity
- advancementForward movement or promotion
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- maturationProcess of becoming complete
enhancement · refinement · optimization · transformation · cultivation · amelioration · reform · elevation
Enhancing oneself deliberately
- potentialLatent capacity for development
- growthIncrease in size
- strivingEarnest sustained endeavor
- bettermentEnhancement of condition
ambition · goal · achievement · excellence · drive · motivation · endeavor · pursuit
Profound spiritual awakening
- self-cultivationIntentional personal growth
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- teleologyStudy of purpose in nature
- reasonBasis or justification
ethics · human nature · Rousseau · Condorcet · Godwin · humanism · rationalism · moral progress
Faith in perfect systems
- idealismBelief in noble principles
- socialismCommunal economic control
- egalitarianismPhilosophy of universal equality
- harmonyAgreement or musical blend
communism · anarchism · collectivism · millenarianism · reformism · optimism · visionary · paradise
improvement
Positive change in quality
- developmentProgress toward maturity
- advancementForward movement or promotion
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
maturation · enhancement · refinement · optimization · transformation · cultivation · amelioration · reform · elevation · enrichment
self-improvement
Enhancing oneself deliberately
betterment · ambition · goal · achievement · excellence · drive · motivation · endeavor · pursuit · reach
enlightenment
Profound spiritual awakening
- self-cultivationIntentional personal growth
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- teleologyStudy of purpose in nature
reason · ethics · human nature · Rousseau · Condorcet · Godwin · humanism · rationalism · moral progress · original sin
utopianism
Faith in perfect systems
- idealismBelief in noble principles
- socialismCommunal economic control
- egalitarianismPhilosophy of universal equality
harmony · communism · anarchism · collectivism · millenarianism · reformism · optimism · visionary · paradise · Eden
exemplar
Typical perfect instance
zenith · acme · apotheosis · summit · culmination · peak · archetype · model · optimum · benchmark
- enlightenmentVoltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Kant, Montesquieu
- Renaissance idealshumanism, universality, human dignity, human potential, liberal arts
- Rousseausocial contract, Emile, Confessions, noble savage, natural state
perfectibilityincorrigibility
Inability to be reformed
irredeemability · hopelessness · intractability · immutability · unchangeability
perfectibilityoriginal sin
Inherited spiritual corruption
total depravity · human depravity · moral corruption · concupiscence · congenital defect
perfect, imperfect, perfection, perfected, imperfection, perfecting, imperfectly, imperfections, perfectible