Perfection is the bane of the human psyche. It appears in art, mathematics, ethics, and even in life as a goal. We desire to render beauty flawless, knowledge exhaustive, morality untainted, or life unblemished. But the perfection chaser bears with it an irony: the more you chase perfection, the clearer it will become that it is unachievable. The idea of perfection itself is likely more of an illusion that affects human behavior both in a bad way and in a good way than it would be an actual condition to attain.
To teenagers, perfection is a pesky specter. Academic achievement, physical attractiveness, popularity, and self-esteem are forever gauged against unattainable standards. Chasing perfection, inward or outward, can generate anxiety, dissatisfaction, and failure phobia. Perfection also stimulates imagination, self-control, and self-improvement. The conflict of seeking excellence and achieving perfection cannot be attained is the pillar of human development.
Philosophers have ever been puzzled about the nature of perfection. For Plato, perfection is an ideal form: a nonmaterial, eternal model of beauty, goodness, or truth. These forms are never instantiated in the world of experience, but they are models for human understanding and desire. And so too with the concept of moral perfection in ethics, which promises good living even though it is never possible for anyone to achieve it perfectly. Perfection here is a motivating force and not an achievable objective. But perfection’s negative aspect must not be ignored.
When human beings pit themselves against an impossible standard, they are entangled in a cycle of continuous dissatisfaction, self-criticism, and hopelessness. The constant pursuit of perfection can discourage experimentation and creativity as mistakes are shunned rather than utilized as a component of the learning process. The cultures continue to enhance this impact by promoting beauty, intelligence, or success ideals that cannot be achieved. The perception of perfection can mobilize people into comparison and incompleteness cycles and make the ideal psychologically oppressive instead of motivational. There is also a less outspoken philosophical concern with whether or not perfection exists at all.
Is anything ever perfect, or is perfection merely a concept relative to that of imperfection? If one is “perfect” on one set of criteria but imperfect on another, then does perfection exist at all? This paradox gives one cause to conclude that perhaps perfection is a human invention, an abstraction that serves to guide thinking and behavior but never actually exists anywhere on the planet. It is real in effect but unreal in substance. Other philosophers propose that the response is not to aim for perfection but to embrace imperfection. The aesthetic of wabi-sabi, Japanese, believes that beauty lies in defect, transience, and imperfection. As in ethics and personal growth, the awareness of limits and lack permits true development, not a doomed attempt at an impossible ideal. Embracing the imperfect is not to relinquish improvement, it is to keep improvement honest, not to grasp for illusion.
Finally, perfection is a prism on to which human beings project aspiration, morality, and beauty.
It can stir great accomplishment as well as heavy, unrealistic demands. The issue is finding a balance between the inspirational value of ideals and the danger of obsession. Perfection is not really a state but the attempt to deal with it shapes human thinking, imagination, and moral thinking. Philosophically, the recognition of the limits of perfection allows us to pursue improvement sensibly, aspiration tempered by humility. In life, the greatest achievements maybe are not a product of immaculate results, but of persistent, imperfect striving towards them.