perfectibility

English

Etymology

From perfect +‎ -ibility.

Noun

perfectibility (countable and uncountable, plural perfectibilities)

1. The possibility of achieving perfection.

   In a project involving many people, maintainability is a more useful asset than perfectibility.

   • 1906, Mary Baker Eddy, “Chapter VI — Science, Theology, Medicine”, in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures‎, Harper and Row, page 110:

     Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought to light another glorious proposition, — man’s perfectibility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

   • 2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 110:

     In their evangelical zeal, crusaders relied upon a message of the essential morality of cleanliness, a message that was especially effective in stirring religious sentiment and that meshed well with evolutionary models of human perfectibility that were prevalent in the sciences.

2. (philosophy) Perfectionism.

Derived terms

• perfectibilist

Translations

the possibility of achieving perfection

French: perfectibilité (fr) f German: Vervollkommnungsfähigkeit f, Perfektibilität (de) f Italian: perfezionabilità f Romanian: perfectibilitate (ro) f