Freedom
7 min readJun 16, 2021
An Essentially Contested Concept
The idea of freedom is a long one. It has been subject to multiple interpretations, and its meaning has changed over time. It is one of what political scientists call “essentially contested concepts”: words with strong values and emotion attached, but without a common definition in practice. Essentially contested concepts are one of the reasons why so many of our political arguments go on and on, with people…