Perfectible

Perfectible is an adjective meaning capable of becoming perfect or of achieving a higher degree of excellence than is presently attained. It can apply to a person, a society, a system, or a process, and carries the sense that improvement remains possible rather than final or fixed. The word derives from Latin perfectibilis (capable of becoming perfect) and entered English through Old French and early modern usage.

In philosophy and political theory, perfectibility is used to express the idea that human beings and human institutions are not intrinsically fixed in their state but can be improved by intellect, morality, and social organization. The concept is associated with Enlightenment optimism about progress. A prominent early advocate is Condorcet, who argued for the perfectibility of the human species and for continual intellectual and social advancement. Other thinkers, such as Immanuel Kant and later liberal theorists, have framed human development as possible but not guaranteed, often stressing limits posed by nature, freedom, and contingent circumstances.

In contemporary discourse, perfectible is used to discuss potential for growth in education, technology, governance, and ethics. It can imply a normative expectation that societies should strive for greater equity, knowledge, and well-being, while acknowledging that perfection is not achievable and that improvement may encounter obstacles, complex trade-offs, or unintended consequences.

Critics have challenged the premise of universal or linear progress, arguing that definitions of perfection are subjective, culturally contingent, and historically contingent. In theology, the term sometimes contrasts human perfectibility with divine perfection, underscoring human limitations.