Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The doctrine that historical religion will gradually lose its tempoary and local character and be perfected according to the ideal formed by reason. This idea was suggested by Lessing.
- noun The property of being perfectible; the property of being susceptible of becoming or being made perfect; specifically, the capability of arriving at perfection in this life, whether a general perfection of the human faculties or Christian perfection.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or state of being perfectible.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
possibility of achievingperfection .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the capability of becoming perfect
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word perfectibility.
Examples
-
Last week I reread Gulliver's Travels, it's for the chapter I'm writing for the book on breeding the chapter's about the idea of perfectibility, Swift to Godwin, with digressions on horse-breeding and cultural versus genetic perfectibility; Swift really is the most amazing writer, there's no one else like him.
Derek Mahon on Swift's poetry Jenny Davidson 2006
-
Where then is the sense of calling the perfectibility of man as used by modern philosophers to be mere words without a meaning, that is mere nonsense.
-
Returning to that "perfectibility" argument I was making a couple of weeks ago, Luthor believes he's earned the right to occupy Superman's cultural role--his idea of perfection is defined in terms of power and prestige, and you don't get much more of that than being the U.S.
Week 3: The Not-So-Amazing Story of Luthor-Green and Luthor-Blue! Douglas Wolk 2006
-
Returning to that "perfectibility" argument I was making a couple of weeks ago, Luthor believes he's earned the right to occupy Superman's cultural role--his idea of perfection is defined in terms of power and prestige, and you don't get much more of that than being the U.S.
Archive 2006-05-01 Douglas Wolk 2006
-
Hogg laughed at him for his belief in the 'perfectibility' of the race, but Hogg knew the belief was vital to the poet.
-
Malthus argues that 'perfectibility' gives an impossible end because equality would lead to vice and misery.
The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) James Mill Leslie Stephen 1868
-
"perfectibility," which rests on much less impressive evidence.
The Idea of Progress An inguiry into its origin and growth 1894
-
But the complexity of his own world view he opposed British involvement in the war but was himself a power-worshiper with a totalitarian itch who believed passionately in human perfectibility charges what might have been a standard-issue Shavian sermon with the multilayered ambiguity of high art.
Smile as the Bomb Goes Off Terry Teachout 2011
-
Does his benevolent intention, his belief in "the perfectibility of mankind," mitigate his culpability in any way?
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd: Questions 2009
-
Sociologists have been seduced by Marxist ideas about the perfectibility of mankind.
ID/Evolution 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.