perfectibility

English

Etymology

From prefect +‎ -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^[1], 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.

Translations

the possibility of achieving perfection

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