The perfectibility of man

About this book

Beginning with an analytic discussion of the various ways in which perfectibility has been interpreted Professor Passmore traces its long history from the Greeks to the present day by way of Christianity orthodox and heterodox the Renaissance the Enlightenment anarchism utopias communism psychoanalysis and evolutionary theories of man and society. Both in its broad sweep and in countless supporting reflections it is a journey through spiritual scenery of the most majestic and exhilarating kind. Thoroughly and elegantly Passmore explores the history of the idea of perfectibility -- manifest in the ideology of perfectibilism -- and its consequences which have invariably been catastrophic for individual liberty and responsibility in private social economic and political life.