perfectibility of man

Cultural  

1. The doctrine, advanced by Rousseau and others, that people are capable of achieving perfection on earth through natural means, without the grace of God.

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Example Sentences

The Yale production stressed the dichotomy between Old World awareness of the burdens of the past and New World faith in the perfectibility of man.

From Time Magazine Archive

That conviction represents an amalgam of Puritanism, with its belief in a permanently flawed human nature, and the Enlightenment tradition, with its belief in the perfectibility of man.

From Time Magazine Archive

After a leading Catholic churchman described the devil to his radio audience, human progress and the early perfectibility of man were defended, by: 1.

From Time Magazine Archive

The graduates do not speak with a common voice but with common candor, sometimes naively and too glibly, often with a deep faith in the perfectibility of man.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the sense in which Mr Godwin understands the term 'perfectible', the perfectibility of man cannot be asserted, unless the preceding propositions could have been clearly established.

From An Essay on the Principle of Population by Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert)