Essentially Contested Concepts

Author(s): W. B. Gallie
Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , 1955 - 1956, New Series, Vol. 56 (1955 -
1956), pp. 167-198
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Aristotelian Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4544562

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Meeting of the Aristotelian Society at 21, Bedford Square, London,
W.C.1, on March 12th, 1956, at 7.30 p.m.

IX.-ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS.

By W. B. GALLIE.

INTRODUCTORY.

ANY particular use of any concept of commonsense or of

the natural sciences is liable to be contested for reasons better
or worse; but whatever the strength of the reasons they
usually carry with them an assumption of agreement, as to
the kind of use that is appropriate to the concept in question,
between its user and anyone who contests his particular use
of it. When this assumption cannot be made, we have a
widely recognized ground for philosophical enquiry. Thus,
" This picture is painted in oils " may be contested on the
ground that it is painted in tempera, with the natural
assumption that the disputants agree as to the proper use
of the terms involved. But " This picture is a work of art "
is liable to be contested because of an evident disagreement
as to-and the consequent need for philosophical elucidation
of-the proper general use of the term " work of art ".
What forms could the required elucidation take? The
history of philosophy suggests three. A philosopher might
in some way discover, and persuade others that he had
discovered, a meaning of the hitherto contested concept to
which all could henceforward agree. Alternatively, a
philosopher might propose a meaning for the contested term
to which, rather than continue in their previous disagreement,
the disputants might decide henceforward to conform.
Thirdly, he might claim to prove or explain the necessity
(relative to certain explanatory conditions) of the contested
character of the concept in question, as for instance Kant
tried to do in his Antinomies. Recently, however, we have
been taught that effective philosophical elucidations are
likely to be of a much more complicated and elusive
R

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 168 W. B. GALLIE.

character than any of the above, and there is to-day a

widespread repudiation of the idea of philosophy as a kind
of " engine " of thought, that can be laid on to eliminate
conceptual confusions wherever they may arise. Now
without wishing to advocate a return to any extreme form
of this latter view, I hope to show, in the case of an important
group of concepts, how acceptance of a single method of
approach-of a single explanatory hypothesis calling for
some fairly rigid schematisation-can give us enlightenment
of a much needed kind.
The concepts which I propose to examine relate to a
number of organized or semi-organized human activities:
in academic terms they belong to aesthetics, to political
philosophy, to the philosophy of history and the philosophy
of religion. My main thought with regard to them is this.
We find groups of people disagreeing about the proper use
of the concepts, e.g., of art, of democracy, of the Christian
tradition. When we examine the different uses of these
terms and the characteristic arguments in which they figure
we soon see that there is no one clearly definable general use
of any of them which can be set up as the correct or standard
use. Different uses of the term "work of art " or " demo-
cracy " or " Christian doctrine" subserve different though
of course not altogether unrelated functions for different
schools or movements of artists and critics, for different
political groups and parties, for different religious com-
munities and sects. Now once this variety of functions is
disclosed it might well be expected that the disputes in which
the above mentioned concepts figure would at once come
to an end. But in fact this does not happen. Each party
continues to maintain that the special functions which the
term " work of art " or " democracy " or " Christian
doctrine " fulfils on its behalf or on its interpretation, is the
correct or proper or primary, or the only important, function
which the term in question can plainly be said to fulfil.
Moreover, each party continues to defend its case with what
it claims to be convincing arguments, evidence and other
forms of justification.

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 169

When this kind of situation persists in practical life we

are usually wise to regard it as a head-on conflict of interests
or tastes or attitudes, which no amount of discussion can
possibly dispel; we are consequently inclined to dismiss the
so-called rational defences of the contesting parties as at best
unconscious rationalizations and at worst sophistical special
pleadings. On the other hand, when this kind of situation
persists in philosophy (where some disputant continues to
maintain against all comers that there is one and only one
proper sense of the term " substance " or " self " or " idea '')
we are inclined to attribute it to some deep-seated and
profoundly interesting intellectual tendency, whose presence
is " metaphysical "-something to be exorcised with skill or
observed with fascination according to our philosophical
temperament. Now I have no wish to deny that endless
disputes may be due to psychological causes on the one
hand or to metaphysical afflictions on the other; but I want
to show that there are apparently endless disputes for which
neither of these explanations need be the correct one.
Further, I shall try to show that there are disputes, centred
on the concepts which I have just mentioned, which are
perfectly genuine: which, although not resolvable by
argument of any kind, are nevertheless sustained by perfectly
respectable arguments and evidence. This is what I mean
by saying that there are concepts which are essentially
contested, concepts the proper use of which inevitably
involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part
of their users.
I shall first set out in some detail a highly artificial
example of an essentially contested concept, with a view to
showing how any proper use of this concept is in the nature
of the case contestable, and will, as a rule, be actually
contested by and in another use of it, which in the nature of
the case is contestable, and will . . . and so on for an
indefinite number of kinds of possible use: these mutually
contesting, mutually contested uses of the concept, making
up together its standard general use. Then I shall list, with
a view to logical " placing " of this kind of concept, a
R2

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 170 W. B. GALLIE.

number of semi-formal conditions to which any concept

of this kind must conform, and shall indicate the different
relations of these conditions to any such concept, again
making use of my artificial example. I shall then discuss
some live examples which approximate closely to my
artificial example, so that, despite their several peculiarities,
I think I can reasonably be said to have explained or
justified their use by comparing them with it. I shall next
discuss what seem to me the most important implications
of my new grouping of concepts for general philosophy, and
shall conclude by trying to meet some objections that might
naturally be raised against it.

THE ARTIFICIAL EXAMPLE.

We are all acquainted with the concept of " champion-

ship " or of " the champions " in various games and sports.
Commonly a team is judged or agreed to be " the champions "
at regular intervals, e.g., annually, in v'irtue of certain
features of its performance against other contesting teams.
Then for a certain period, e.g., a year, this team is by
definition " the champions " even though, as months go by,
it becomes probable or certain that they will not repeat their
success. But now let us imagine a championship of the
following kind. (I) In this championship each team
specializes in a distinctive method, strategy and style of play
of its own, to which all its members subscribe to the best
of their ability. (II) " Championship " is not adjudged and
awarded in terms of the highest number of markable
successes, e.g., " scores ", but in virtue of level of style or
calibre. (No doubt for this to be manifested a certain
minimum number of successes is necessary.) More simply,
to be adjudged " the champions " means to be judged " to
have played the game best ". (III) " Championship " is
not a distinction gained and acknowledged at a fixed time
and for a fixed period. Games proceed continuously, and
whatever side is acknowledged champion to-day knows it
may perfectly well be caught up or surpassed to-morrow.

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 171

(IV) Just as there is no " marking " or " points " system to
decide who are the champions, so there are no official judges
or strict rules of adjudication. Instead what happens is this.
Each side has its own loyal kernel group of supporters, and
in addition, at any given time, a number of " floating "
supporters who are won over to support it because of the
quality of its play-and, we might add, the loudness of its
kernel supporters' applause and the persuasiveness of their
comments. Moreover, at any given time, one side will have
the largest (and loudest) group of supporters who, we may
say, will effectively hail it as " the champions ". But (V)
the supporters of every contesting team regard and refer to
their favoured team as "the champions " (perhaps allowing
such qualifications as "the true champions ", " the destined
champions ", " morally the champions " . . . and so on).
To bring out the importance of this point, we may suppose
that all groups of supporters would acknowledge that at a
given moment one team T1 are "the effective champions ".
Yet the property of being acknowledged effective champions
carries with it no universal recognition of outstanding
excellence-in T 's style and calibre of play. On the
contrary, the supporters of T2, T3, etc., continue to regard
and to acclaim their favoured teams as " the champions "
and continue with their efforts to convert others to their
view, not through any vulgar wish to be the majority party,
but because they believe their favoured team is playing the
game best. There is, therefore, continuous competition
between the contestant teams, not only for acknowledgement
as champions, but for acceptance of (what each side and its
supporters take to be) the proper criteria of championshiip.

THE CONDITIONS OF ESSENTIAL CONTESTEDNESS.

In order to count as essentially contested, in the sense

just illustrated, a concept must possess the -four following
characteristics:-(I) it must be appraisive in the sense that it
signifies or accredits some kind of valued achievement.
(II) This achievement must be of an internally complex

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 172 W. B. GALLIE.

character, for all that its worth is attributed to it as a whole.

(III) Any explanation of its worth must therefore include
reference to the respective contributions of its various parts
or features; yet prior to experimentation there is nothing
absurd or contradictory in any one of a number of possible
rival descriptions of its total worth, one such description
setting its component parts or features in one order of
importance, a second setting them in a second order, and
so on. In fine, the accredited achievement is initially
variously describable. (IV) The accredited achievement
must be of a kind that admits of considerable modification
in the light of changing circumstances; and such modification
cannot be prescribed or predicted in advance. For con-
venience I shall call the concept of any such achievement
" open " in character.'
These seem to me to be the four most important necessary
conditions to which any essentially contested concept must
comply. But they do not define what it is to be a concept
of this kind. For this purpose we should have to say not
only that different persons or parties adhere to different
views of the correct use of some concept but (V) that each
party recognizes the fact that its own use of it is contested
by those of other parties, and that each party must have at
least some appreciation of the different criteria in the light
of which the other parties claim to be applying the concept
in question. More simply, to use an essentially contested
concept means to use it against other uses and to recognize
that one's own use of it has to be maintained against these
other uses. Still more simply, to use an essentially contested
concept means to use it both aggressively and defensively.

I We might re-write conditions (III) and (IV) above as follows:-(IIIa) Any

essentially contested concept is liable initially to be ambiguous, since a given
individual P, may apply it having in mind description D, of the achieverment
which the concept accredits, and his application of it may be accepted (or
rejected) by other people who have in mind different descriptions, D2, D31
etc., of the accredited achievement. But this initial ambiguity must be
considered in conjunction with condition (V) below. (IVa) Any essentially
contested concept is persistently vague, since a proper use of it by P1 in a
situation S1 affords no sure guide to anyone else as to Pl's next, and perhaps
equally proper, use of it in some future situation S2.

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 173

I will now discuss these five conditions

artificial example. There can be no question but that my
concept of " the champions" is appraisive; nor, I think, that
it is used both aggressively and defensively. This disposes
of conditions (I) and (V). What of condition (II) that the
achievement of championship (by playing the game best)
must be of an internally complex character? Are all worth-
while achievements essentially internally complex? That
they are seems to me as certain as any statement about
values and valuation can be; and although I admit that
there is plenty to be said and asked about why this is so,
I don't think it necessary to embark on such discussion here.
To meet condition (III)-the variously describable character
of the achievement which the term " the champions "
accredits-we may imagine that our championship is to be
gained by playing a game something like skittles. The only
action it demands from all members of any contesting side
is a kind of bowling at certain objects. But such bowling
can be judged, from the point of view of method, strategy
and style, in a number of different ways: particular import-
ance may be attached to speed or to direction or to height
or to swerve or spin. But no one can bowl simply with speed,
or simply with good direction or simply with height or
swerve or spin: some importance, however slight, must, in
practice, be attached to each of these factors, for all that
the supporters of one team will speak of its "sheer-speed
attack" (apparently neglecting other factors), while sup-
porters of other teams coin phrases to emphasise other
factors in bowling upon which their favoured team con-
centrates its efforts.
To cover condition (IV)-that the achievement our
concept accredits is persistently vague-let us consider the
particular case of the team which concentrates its efforts,
and reposes its hopes for the championship, on a " sheer-
speed attack ". The task facing them is: can they put up an
outstanding performance in this method and style of bowling,
a performance which will make all other methods and styles
look " not really bowling at all "? To succeed in this the

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 174 W. B. GALLIE.

bowlers in our team must eviden

stances, and modify their method of play as circumstances
suggest or dictate. (We may imagine that certain grounds
-or alleys-and certain lights are much more obviously
favourable to " sheer-speed attack" than others.) But
whatever the circumstances, our team strives to be acclaimed
as " the champions " in virtue of its characteristic (" sheer-
speed ") method and style of bowling. In ostensibly
favourable circumstances such acclamation could be backed
by the judgment: " They are the champions-they have
shown us what speed bowling really is." In ostensibly
unfavourable circumstances it could be backed by: " They
are the champions-they have shown us what speed can do
when everything seems against it." In general no one
can predict, at any given time, what level or what special
adaptation of its own particular style-what bold raising or
sagacious lowering of its achievement-targets-may streng-
then any particular team's claim to be the champions.
So much for the four most important necessary pre-
conditions2 of a concept's being of essentially contested

2 Are all four conditions necessary? I suggest that proof of this could be
found along the following lines. Given conditions (II) and (III) we have
the sort of situation where a multi-dimensional description or classification of
certain facts is possible. But in any such situation, specific evidential or
methodological reasons apart, it would be absurd to prefer one style of possible
description or classification to the others. But substitute achievements for
facts, i.e., an appraisive concept or classification for a purely naturalistic one,
and the absurdity disappears, since for the purpose of moral or aesthetic
persuasion one style of description or classification may very definitely be
preferable to another which is logically equipollent with it. Here is a strong
reason for thinking that condition (I) is necessary. But even in a situation
which conforms to conditions (I), (II) and (III) it is conceivable that
experience should establish one style of description as, again for the purpose
of moral or aesthetic persuasion, universally more acceptable than any other
This result could hardly be expected, however, if condition (IV) be added,
i.e., if the kind of achievement which our concept or classification accredi
is, in my sense, an " open " one; for what this condition ensures is, in term
of my artificial example, that to-morrow's circumstances may bring out hither
latent virtues in the play of any of the contestant teams. There remains the
possibility that the addition of condition (IV) renders condition (I) superfluou
This could be maintained if, and only if, instances could be produced of a
concept which conforms to my conditions (II), (III) and (IV) and which
is yet wholly non-appraisive in character. My suspicion is, however, that no
purely naturalistic concept will be found conforming to my conditions (II),
(III) and (IV).

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 175

character, and for the further condition (V) which defines

what it is to be a concept of this kind. But at this point the
following objections may be raised: " All your definition
does is to suggest the kind of situation in which people
could claim to be using a concept of the kind you call
' essentially contested '. But the kind of situation you have
described is indistinguishable from those situations in which
people engage in apparently endless contests as to the right
application of some epithet or slogan, which in fact serves
simply to confuse two different concepts about whose proper
application no one need have contested at all. The
important question is how are these all-too-familiar cases
to be distinguished from the artificial example which you
have presented? To all appearances your concept of ' the
champions' not only denotes consistently different sets of
individuals (teams) according as it is used by different
parties (supporters); it also connotes different achievements
(in the way of different methods, strategies and styles
favoured by the different teams) according as it is used by
different groups of supporters. Is there, then, any real
ground for maintaining that it has a single meaning, that
could be contested? "
The easy answer to this objection is that no one would
conceivably refer to one team among others as " the
champions " unless he believed his team to be playing better
than all the others at the same game. The context of any
typical use of " the champions " shows that it has thus far
an unequivocal meaning as between its different (contestant)
users. But to this answer the critic may retort: " But
exactly the same situation appears to obtain wherever men
dispute over the right use of what proves eventually to be a
thoroughly confused concept, or better a thoroughly con-
fusing term which cloaked the possibly perfectly consistent
use of two or more concepts which only needed to be
discriminated. Your definition of what it is to be an
essentially contested concept may in a sense cover the kind
of facts which your artificial example is meant to illustrate,
but among them may well be the fact of a persistent

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 176 W. B. GALLIE.

delusion, viz., the deluded belief that the different teams are
all playing the same game."
It turns out, then, that this objection is a request, not
for further refinement of our definition of an essentially
contested concept, but for an indication of the conditions in
which the continued use of any such concept, as above
defined, can be defended. And this is a perfectly fair
request, since it is always reasonable to urge the parties
contesting the rightful use of such a concept to bethink
themselves with all seriousness, whether they are really
alleging the same achievement. For instance, in our
artificial example, might it not simply be said that T1 is
trying to put on a first class performance of (primarily) fast
bowling; T2 of (primarily) straight bowling, and so on, and
that these quite proper but quite different aims of our
different teams are not essentially, but only accidentally and
as a result of persistent confusion, mutually contesting and
contested ?
I shall at once sketch the outlines of the required defence
in terms of my artificial example, but must add that until
it is interpreted in the live examples which follow, it may
well seem somewhat specious. In defence, then, of the
continued use of the concepts " championship " and " the
champions " in my example I urge: each of my teams could
properly be said to be contesting for the same championship
if, in every case, its peculiar method and style of playing
had been derived by a process of imitation and adaptation
from an examplar, which might have the form either of one
prototype team of players, or of a succession (or tradition)
of teams. This examplar's way of playing must be recog-
nized by all the contesting teams (and their supporters) to
be " the way the game is to be played "; yet, because of the
internally complex and variously describable character of
the examplar's play, it is natural that different features in
it should be differently weighted by different appraisers,
and hence that our different teams should have come to
hold their very different conceptions of hiow the game should
be played. To this we should add that recognition or

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 177

acceptance of the examplar's achievement must have that

" open " character which we have ascribed to every
essentially contested concept. A certain kind of worth-while
achievement was presented, and our teams have all been
seeking to revive or reproduce it in their play. But there
can be no question of any purely mechanical repetition or
reproduction of it. To follow an examplar is to exert
oneself to revive its (or his) way of doing things, not only to
the utmost of one's ability, but to the utmost that circum-
stances, favourable or unfavourable, will allow.
Let us now illustrate this situation in terms of Team T1
(with its " sheer-speed" attack) and its supporters. All
members and supporters of this team are at one with all
members and supporters of all other teams in acknowledging
the authority of the exemplar; but in appraising the
exemplar's achievement members and supporters of T1 have
concentrated their attention, primarily and predominantly,
on the one factor of speed. They have conscientiously
sustained and perhaps even advanced the exemplar's way
of playing as circumstances permitted in terms of their own
appraisal of it. Members and supporters of T1 are therefore
assured that T1 has played the game as it should be played.
But just the same holds true, of course, of all the other
contestant teams, together with their supporters.
At this point it is worth recalling that in our artificial
example championship is not awarded on any quantitative
system; we can now see how difficult, if not impossible, such
a system would be to work, given the other conditions which
we have laid down. For who is to say whether T,'s
sustaining and advancing of the exemplar's way of playing is
a better (" truer " or " more orthodox ") achievement than
that of, say, T2, whose members have no doubt contended
with quite different difficulties and exploited quite different
advantages in their concentration upon the different factor
of direction ? In general, it would seem to be quite
impossible to fix a general principle for deciding which of two
such teams has really " done best "-done best in its own
peculiar way to advance or sustain the characteristic
excellence revealed in the exemplar's play.

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 178 W. B. GALLIE.

We have thus taken two steps in defence of the continued

use of our essentially contested concept " the champions ":-
(I) We have seen that each of our teams claims-and can
point to facts which appear to support its claim-that its
style of play embodies " the true line of descent " or " the
right method of development " of the exemplar's play.
(II) We have seen that there can be no general method or
principle for deciding between the claims made by the
different teams. To be sure, these steps do not amount to
a justification of the claim of any particular team, viz., that
its way of playing is the best. Indeed, if they did so the
concept of " the champions " would cease to be an essentially
contested one. Nevertheless, recalling the internally com-
plex, and variously describable, and peculiarly " open "
character of the exemplar's achievement, we must admit the
following possibility: that this achievement could not have
been revived and sustained or developed to the optimum
which actual circumstances have allowed, except by the kind
of continuous competition for acknowledged championship
(and for acceptance of one particular criterion of " cham-
pionship ") which my artificial example was designed to
illustrate. Thus Team T1 could hardly have developed
its sheer-speed attack to its present excellence had it not
been aspiring to convert supporters from Team T2, which
in its turn could hardly have developed its skill in respect
of direction had it not been aspiring to convert supporters
. . . and so on for all the contestant teams. This result of
continuous competition does not justify the claims of any
one of our teams; but it might be said to justify, other things
being equal, the combined employment of the essentially
contested concept " the -champions " by all the contesting
teams.
Two comments on this line of defence may be added.
(a) It has an obvious affinity to the now well-known theory
of " competition " between rival scientific hypotheses, a
theory which certainly does much to explain the apparently
inherent progressiveness of the natural sciences. But its
differences from this theory are as important as its affinity

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 179

to it. Competition between scientific hypotheses works

successfully largely because there are acknowledged general
methods or principles for deciding between rival hypotheses,
for all that these methods or principles may never be com-
pletely formalized or finally agreed. But nothing remotely
like this is true in the case of essentially contested concepts;
none of these, in the nature of the case, ever succumbs-as
most scientific theories eventually do-to a definite or
judicial knock-out. (b) The above defence of the continued
use of an essentially contested concept is conditional in the
extreme. It is introduced as a possibility, which the facts
in certain cases may at once preclude. For example it
might turn out that continued use of two or more rival
versions of an essentially contested concept would have the
effect of utterly frustrating the kind of activity and achieve-
ment which it was the job of this concept (in and through
all the rival contestant versions) to appraise-and through
positive appraisal to help to sustain. Even in more favour-
able cases, the question whether in fact competition between
rival claimants has sustained or developed the original
exemplar's achievement to the optimum, will usually be a
very difficult one to decide. This is the first import of the
phrase " othei things being equal " in this connexion. But
again, even where the question could be answered affirma-
tively with regard to the kind of achievement in question, the
cost of sustaining and developing it competitively may well
be judged too high in the light of its more general effects.
In this connexion, our artificial example from the happy
field of sport was an unusually favourable one. It suggested
one main and at least harmless result-the sustaining and
developing of a number of competitively connected athletic
skills. But suppose the pursuit of championship in our
example were to result in the impoverishment of all the
players and supporters (through neglect of their proper
business), or in the formation of savage political cleavages
between different teams and their supporters-than our
reaction to it would be very different. In general, the
above defence of the continued use of any essentially

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 180 W. B. GALLIE.

contested concept is evidently subject to very stringent

conditions.
To sum up this part of our discussion. Conditions (I)
to (V) as stated on pages 171-2 above give us the formally
defining conditions of essential contestedness. But they
fail to distinguish the essentially contested concept from the
kind of concept which can be shown, as a result of analysis
or experiment, to be radically confused. In order to make
this distinction, which is in effect to justify the continued
use of any essentially contested concept, it is necessary to
add two further conditions. These are (VI) the derivation
of any such concept from an original exemplar whose
authority is acknowledged by all the contestant users of the
concept, and (VII) the probability or plausibility, in
appropriate senses of these terms, of the claim that the
continuous competition for acknowledgement as between
the contestant users of the concept, enables the original
exemplar's achievement to be sustained and/or developed in
optimum fashion.

SOME LIVE EXAMPLES.

The examples I choose are the concepts of Art, of

Democracy, of Social Justice, and that of the adherence to,
or participation in, a particular religion. None of these
concepts conforms with perfect precision to the seven
conditions I have set out above. But do they conform to
my conditions sufficiently closely for us to agree that their
essential contestedness explains-or goes a very long way
towards explaining-the ways they function in characteristic
aesthetic, political and religious arguments? This is the
test question which I believe my account of them will
satisfy.
Of the concepts just mentioned the fourth seems to me
to satisfy most nearly perfectly my several conditions.
Consider, as illustration of it, the phrase " a Christian life ".
Clearly this is an appraisive term; on reflection it can be
seen, equally clearly, to signify an achievement that is

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 181

internally complex, variously describable and " open " in the

senses which I have given to those terms. Too often, if not
always, it is used both " aggressively " and " defensively ".
That any proper use of it conforms to the first of my two
justifying conditions, (VI) above, is obvious; whilst that it
conforms to my condition (VII) might be agreed (though
no doubt with many different qualifying conditions) not
only by liberal Christians, but by liberal spirits of other
(or even of no) religious persuasions.
The most questionable case is that of its conformity to
condition (V). Is the phrase " a Christian life " necessarily
used both aggressively and defensively? The familiar
pattern of the history of Christianity is certainly that of one
dominant church, in any area or in any epoch, and usually
a number of dissenting or protesting sects. But is there
anything inherently necessary in this pattern? Is the
Christian kingdom, here below also, essentially one of many
mansions? Conformity to my conditions (I) to (IV) and
to my condition (VI) cannot be said, in this or in any
instance, to entail such a conclusion. But it makes it
extremely likely that such a conclusion will be found to
hold; and given its historical development to date-which
is something that Christianity (in this like any other great
religion) can never possibly shed-its contested character, or
the aggressive and defensive use of many of its key doctrines
and principles, would appear to belong inherently to it
now.
Having said this I do not propose to press this example
any further, partly because of my ignorance of the relevant
apologetic literature, but chiefly because the most important
question it raises is one which I shall try to deal with later
in a more general form. This is the question, which would
be raised by any positivistically minded critic of any religion,
whether the so-called arguments by which adherents of one
creed seek to convert adherents of other creeds are in any
proper sense arguments at all.
Let us next consider the concept of Art. As with our
previous example so here, clarification requires that we view

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 182 W. B. GALLIE.

this concept with the historian's as much as with the

logician's eye; for perhaps the most interesting fact about
it is the brevity of its history, the comparatively recent date
of its " arrival " as a theoretical concept. Nevertheless,
during that history it has succeeded in being continuously
contested, and for reasons that are not hard to find. Running
again through our five necessary conditions of essential
contestedness we can easily agree: (I) Art as we use the
term to-day is mainly, if not exclusively, an appraisive term.
(II) The kind of achievement it accredits is always internally
complex. (III) This achievement has proved to be variously
describable-largely, if not solely, because at different times
and in different circles it has seemed both natural and
justifiable to describe the phenomena of Art with a dominant
emphasis now on the work of Art (Art-product) itself, now
on the response of the audience or spectator, now on the
aim and inspiration of the artist, now on the tradition within
which the artist works, now on the general fact of com-
munication between the artist, via art-product, and audience.
(IV) Artistic achievement, or the persistence of artistic
activity is always " open " in character in the sense that,
at any one stage in its history, no one can predict or
prescribe what new development of current art-forms may
come to be regarded as of properly artistic worth.
(V) Intelligent artists and critics will readily agree that the
term Art and its derivatives are used, for the most part, both
aggressively and defensively.
I must admit that my first justifying condition-deriva-
tion frolm a single generally acknowledged exemplar (in this
case a single tradition of art) cannot be simply or directly
applied. Clearly there have been different, and very often
quite independent, artistic traditions. Nevertheless, I think
that in any intelligent discussion of works of art or of artistic
valuation, it is fairly easy to see what particular artistic
tradition or set of traditions is being regarded as the
" exemplar term ". Finally it could at least be argued that
the stimulating effects of competition between different
aesthetic viewpoints, or different styles of description of

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 183

aesthetic values, have provided a sufficient justification

of the continued use of Art as an essentially contested
term.
I think it is worth adding, to meet the objections of those
who would decry the term Art as a useless blanket-term,
that a supporting account could be given of the actual use
in criticism of a number of relatively specific aesthetic terms.
I will mention only one example: the notion of colouration.
From different aesthetic viewpoints colouration, considered
as an appraisive term, may be used to refer predominantly
either to the arrangement of pigments on a surface, or to
the use of pigments to convey certain other spacial effects,
e.g., massiveness, distance, etc., or to their use to represent or
suggest certain forms found in nature, or to express some-
thing peculiar (individual, novel, important) in the artist's
general way of seeing things. This being so, it is not
difficult to see that the notion of colouration is in
fact used in an essentially contested manner, even if
this fact is not admitted by the majority of critics and
aestheticians.
Coming -now to the concept of Democracy, I want first
to make clear what uses of it, in political discussion, are not
here to be discussed. Sometimes in a political argument
actual political conditions or actions are referred to and then
the question is put: " Can you call that democratic? " or
" Is this an example of your democracy? " But questions
of actual practice, vindicating or belying certain particular
uses of the term " democracy " are not here our concern.
Again, when commending certain political arrangements or
in criticizing others, political spokesmen sometimes make use
of theoretical considerations, (drawn perhaps from political
science, perhaps from political philosophy) which appear to
show that from the arrangements in question democratic
results can be expected to follow, or alternatively are most
unlikely to, or even could not conceivably follow. But such
theory-inspired uses or mentions of the term democracy are
not here our concern. Both the above uses presuppose a
more elementary use in which it can be said to express (and
s

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 184 W. B. GALLIE.

usually to-day to express approval of) certain political

aspirations which have been embodied in countless slave,
peasant, national and middle-class revolts and revolutions,
as well as in scores of national constitutions and party records
and programmes. These aspirations are evidently centred
in a demand for increased equality: or, to put it negatively,
they are advanced against governments and social orders
whose aim is to prolong gross forms of inequality. To be
sure, when thus conceived, the concept of democracy is
extremely vague, but not, I think, hopelessly so, as is, for
instance, the concept of the "cause of right". Its vagueness
reflects its actual inchoate condition of growth; and if we
want to understand its condition, and control its practical
and logical vagaries, the first step, I believe, is to recognize
its essentially contested character. Let us therefore once
again run through my list of defining and justifying con-
ditions.
(I) The concept of democracy which we are discussing
is appraisive; indeed many would urge that during the last
one hundred and fifty years it has steadily established itself
as the appraisive political concept par excellence. Questions
of efficiency and security apart, the primary question on
any major policy-decision has come to be: Is it democratic?
By contrast, the concept of liberty, or more accurately, of
particular liberties deserving protection irrespective of their
democratic spread or appeal, appears steadily to have lost
ground.
(II) and (III) The concept of democracy which we are
discussing is internally complex in such a way that any
democratic achievement (or programme) admits of a variety
of descriptions in which its different aspects are graded in
different orders of importance. I list as examples of
different aspects (a) Democracy means primarily the power
of the majority of citizens to choose (and remove) govern-
ments-a power which would seem to involve, anyhow in
larger communities, something like the institution of parties
competing for political leadership; (b) Democracy means
primarily equality of all citizens, irrespective of race, creed,

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 185

sex, etc., to attain to positions of political leadership and

responsibility; (c) Democracy means primarily the con-
tinuous active participation of citizens in political life at
all levels, i.e., it is real when, and in so far as, there really is
self-government.
Of these descriptions (b) and (c) emphasize features of
democracy which clearly can exist in greater or less degree
and are therefore liable to be differently placed for relative
importance. But does not description (a) state an absolute
requirement and therefore a necessary condition of para-
mount importance-perhaps even a sufficient condition-of
a democratic society? We of the western tradition commonly
claim this; but I believe our claim to be confused, for all
that our democratic practice may have been, to date, none
the worse for that.3
Suppose a society which answers in high degree to the
conditions required by descriptions (b) and (c). In such a
society government might reasonably be expected to show
itself responsive, in considerable degree, to movements of
popular opinion. Yet this result does not necessarily require
constitutionally recognized means (e.g., universal and secret
ballot and the existence of competitive parties) for the
wholesale removal of governments. The practice of certain
churches which claim to satisfy proper democratic demands,

3 I say confused, because it seems to me that the claim that description (a)
is of absolute, paramount (and perhaps also of logically sufficient) character,
is commonly grounded upon two liberal principles or beliefs, viz., (I) that those
political liberties that are enjoyed by all (or almost all) our citizens deserve
protection primarily because all traditionally accepted liberties (no matter
how restricted the enjoyment of them) are things that prima facie deserve
protection, and (II) that the existence of a wide variety of liberties (enjoyed
by different ranges of our citizens) has been historically and remains to-day a
necessary condition of our specifically democratic values and achievements. Both
these claims, I would say, reflect our grasp of a particular historical truth of
immense importance, viz., as to how democracy has taken root and flourished
in the west. But if they are put forward as universal political truths expressing
the necessary conditions of any genuinely democratic aspirations or achieve-
ments, then they are surely open to question. To many people in the world
to-day they must seem indeed, not so much questionable as utterly-and in
a sense insultingly-irrelevant to their actual situation. What is the relevance
of a Burkian philosophy of political liberties to the great majority of Asians
and Africans to-day?
s 2

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 186 w. B. GALLIE.

here shows a curious analogy to those governments which

insist on their democratic character while denying their
citizens the right of " free election'" on the western pattern.
For this reason, as well as for others which space forbids
me to elaborate here, I conclude that the popular conception
of democracy conforms to my conditions (II) and (III) for
essential contestedness.
(IV) The concept of democracy which we are discussing
is " open " in character. Politics being the art of the
possible, democratic targets will be raised or lowered as
circumstances alter, and democratic achievements are
always judged in the light of such alterations. (V) The
concept of democracy which we are discussing is used both
aggressively and defensively. This hardly requires discussion
-except by those who repudiate the suggestion that there
is any single general use of the term "democracy". My
reply here is that such people neglect the possibility of a
single general use made up, essentially, of a number of
mutually contesting and contested uses of it. (VI) These
uses claim the authority of an exemplar, i.e., of a long
tradition (perhaps a number of historically independent but
sufficiently similar traditions) of demands, aspirations,
revolts and reforms of a common anti-inegalitarian character;
and to see that the vagueness of this tradition in no way
affects its influence as an exemplar, we need only recall
how many and various political movements claim to have
drawn their inspiration from the French Revolution.
(VII) Can we add, finally, that continuous competition for
acknowledgement between rival uses of the popular concept
of democracy seems likely to lead to an optimum development
of the vague aims and confused achievements of the demo-
cratic tradition? Is it not, rather, more likely to help fan
the flames of conflict, already sufficiently fed by other causes,
between those groups of men and nations that contest its
proper use? It is not the job of the present analysis, or of
political philosophy in general, to offer particular predic-
tions or advice on this kind of issue. But our present analysis
does prompt the question, for which parallels could be

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 187

provided by my other live examples, and which I shall try

to answer in generalized form below, viz., In what way
should we expect current dog-fights over the concept of
democracy to be affected if its essentially contested character
were recognized by all concerned?
Whereas the concepts of religion, of art and of democracy
would seem to admit, under my condition (III), of an
indefinite number of possible descriptions, the concept of
social justice as popularly used to-day seems to admit of
only two.4 Of these the first rests on the ideas of merit and
commutation: justice consists in the institution and applica-
tion of those social arrangements whereby the meritorious
individual receives his commutative due. The second rests
upon, in the sense of presupposing, the ideas (or ideals) of
co-operation, to provide the necessities of a worth-while
human life, and of distribution of products to assure such a
life to all who co-operate. It is natural to take these two
descriptions as characteristic of two facets of contemporary
morality, which might be labelled liberal and socialist
respectively. But in fact these two facets would seem to
appear in any morality or moral teaching worthy of the
name: witness, e.g., the opposed lessons of the parable of the
talents and the parable of the vineyard, or, on a humbler
plane, contrast the encouragement one gives to children now
to show their worth, now to pitch in for the sake of the family
or group or side.
It is the sheer duality of these opposed uses that is of
particular interest, since it suggests a bridge between those
appraisive concepts which are variously describable and
.essentially contested and those whose everyday use appears
to be uniquely describable and universally acknowledged.
Such are the central concepts of ethics; and the bearing upon
these of my suggested new grouping of concepts is the third
question which I reserve for separate discussion below.

4 Cf. my " Liberal Morality and Social Morality " in Philosophy, Vol.XXIV,
No. 91, 1950, pp. 318-334,

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 188 W. B. GALLIE.

OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS.

I shall now assume that each of my live examples

conforms sufficiently closely to my conditions (I)-(VII) for
it to be agreed that my proposed new grouping of concepts
goes some way towards explaining them. But what further
results can we expect from it? To answer this I turn to
the three questions which I left outstanding in the previous
section, on the ground that they would usefully admit of a
more generalized treatmetit.
(I) Are the endless disputes to which the use of any
essentially contested concept give rise genuine disputes,
i.e., of such a character that the notions of evidence, cogency
and rational persuasion can properly be applied to them?
This is, in effect, the question whether there is such a thing
as " the logic " of conversion either in the religious or aesthetic
or in the political and moral fields. Are some conversions
in any of these fields of such a kind that they can be described
as logically justified or defensible? Or on the contrary,
are conversions in these fields always changes of view-point
which can indeed be effected or engineered by appropriate
methods, and can be causally explained by adducing
relevant facts and generalizations, but only in such ways
that the idea of logical "justification " is inappropriate to
them? Our previous discussion has sufficiently emphasised
one all-important point: viz., that if the notion of logical
justification can be applied only to such theses and argu-
ments as can be presumed capable of gaining in the long run
universal agreement, the disputes to which the uses of any
essentially contested concept give rise are not genuine or
rational disputes at all. Our first question, then, is to
decide whether conformity to this condition-the possibility
of obtaining universal agreement-provides a necessary
criterion of the genuineness of arguments or disputes of all
kinds. Now an affirmative answer to this question certainly
requires some special defence; for the notion of possible
ultimate universal agreement is a highly sophisticated one
and does not figure among the familiarly recognized criteria

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 189

of rational justification. Moreover, I would claim that those

who have urged us to accept an affirmative answer here have
entirely neglected the existence of essentially contested
concepts, and have failed to examine in any detail the
peculiar structures of the arguments to which their uses give
rise. Pending such examination, therefore, I conclude that
this first possible form of the objection need not cause us
any great worry.
But now the objection can be put on more general
grounds, viz., that, as we have explicitly confessed, it is
quite impossible to find a general principle for deciding which
of two contestant uses of an essentially contested concept
really " uses it best ". If no such principle can be found or
fixed, then how can the arguments of the contestants in
such a dispute be subject to logical appraisal? My answer
is that even where a general principle may be unobtainable
for deciding, in a manner that would or might conceivably
win ultimate agreement, which of a number of contestant
uses of a given concept is its " best use ", it may yet be
possible to explain or show the rationality of a given
individual's continued use (or in the more dramatic case of
conversion his change of use) of the concept in question.
To show how this is possible let me revert, yet once
again, to my artificial example and consider the supporters
of three contestant teams T1, T2, and T3. And for sim-
plicity let us assume that the style of play of T2 can be said
to stand mid-way between the styles of T1 and T3. Let us
recall, too, that in each of these groups of supporters there
will always be wavering or marginal individuals, who are
more than usually aware of the appeals-the characteristic
excellences-of teams other than that which at the moment
they favour and support. Let us concentrate on an
individual I2, at present a marginal supporter of T2. A
particular performance of Team T1, or some shrewd
appraisive comment from one of Tl's supporters sudde
makes him realize much more completely than heretofore
the justice of Tl's claim to be sustaining and advancing the
orizinal exemplar team's style of play in " the best possible

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 190 W. B. GALLIE.

way ". This tips the scale for him and he is converted to
being a supporter of T1. But now we may assume that the
same particular performance (or shrewd appraisive com-
ment) has had a comparable-though not so dramatically
effective-influence upon other staunch supporters of T2.
It has slightly shaken them, we might say. At least it has
made them aware that, in comparable circumstances T2
must make a comparably effective adaptation of its style
of play if it is to keep their unwavering support. Further,
we may assume that although supporters of T3 are less shaken
by the particular performance, they have at least been made
to " sit up and take notice "; and similarly, with decreasing
degrees of force for supporters of other teams whose styles of
play are still remoter from that of T1.
Put less artificially, what I am claiming is that a certain
piece of evidence or argument put forward by one side in an
apparently endless dispute can be recognized to have a
definite logical force, even by those whom it entirely fail
to win over or convert to the side in question; and that whe
this is the case, the conversion of a hitherto wavering
opponent of the side in question can be seen to be justifiable
-not simply expectable in the light of known relevant
psychological or sociological laws-given the waverer's
previous state of information and given the grounds on
which he previously supported one side and opposed the
other. It is for this reason that we can distinguish more
or less intellectually respectable conversions from those of a
more purely emotional, or yet those of a wholly sinister kind.
To be sure, our previous wavering opponent of one use of
an essentially contested concept would not be justified in
transferring his allegiance in the circumstances outlined if
he were able, for an indefinite length of time, to withhold
his support.from any of its possible uses, i.e., to take up an
entirely uncommitted attitude. But as in our artificial
example, so in life this possibility is often precluded. The
exigencies of living commonly demand that " he who is
not for us is against us ", or that he who hestitates to throw
in his support or make his contribution on one side or the

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 191

other is lost-not just to one of the sides that might have

claimed his support-but to the game and to the day.
From this point of view " the logic of conversion " from one
contested use of an essentially contested concept to another
is on all-fours with the logic of every unique decision: and
as in the latter more general case, so in that which concerns
us here, there can be little question but that greater or lesser
degrees of rationality can be properly and naturally
attributed to one continued use, or one change of use, than
to others.
Two points may be added to reinforce this account.
It has usually been asserted by " attitude-moralists," that
the sole significant content of any moral dispute must
concern the facts, the empirically testable facts, of the matter
in question. It is important to contrast this assertion with
our account of the conversion of the individual I2. What
I2 recognizes in my account, is a fact if you like, but not a
mere empirical observandum. It is, rather, the fact that a
particular achievement (of T1) revives and realizes, as it
were in fuller relief, some already recognized feature of an
already valued style of performance, i.e., that of the original
exemplar. Because of this particular performance I2 sees,
or claims to see, more clearly and fully why he has acknow-
ledged and followed the exemplar's style of performance all
along. The scales are tipped for him not, or at least not
only, by some psychologically explainable kink of his
temperament, not by some observandum whose sheer
occurrence all observers must acknowledge, but by his
recognition of a value which, given his particular marginal
appraisive situation, is conclusive for him, although it
is merely impressive or surprising or worth noticing for
others.
While insisting that there may be this much objectivity
in the grounds of any particular conversion, we may never-
theless agree with " attitude-moralists " that fundamental
differencies of attitude, of a kind for which no logical
justification can be given, must also lie back of the kind of
situation which we have just discussed. Why should one

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 192 W. B. GALLIE.

style of play (as in our artificial example) appeal to one

group of supporters and another style to a second group?
Why should one facet of Democracy or of the Christian
Message appeal so strongly to one type or group or
communion, another to a second? At any given stage in
the history of the continued uses of any essentially contested
concept, it will no doubt be necessary to call upon psycho-
logical or sociological history or the known historical facts
of a person's or group's background, to explain their present
preferences and adherences. But to admit this is not to
deny the existence, or at least the possibility, of logically
appraisable factors in an individual's use, or change of use,
of a particular contested concept.
Our second outstanding question may be stated as
follows: In what ways should we expect recognition of the
essentially contested character of a given concept to affect
its future uses by different contestant parties ?
Two preliminary points must be made: (I) It is important
to distinguish clearly such recognition-a somewhat sophis-
ticated " higher order " intellectual feat-from the everyday
" lower order " recognition that one is using a given concept
both aggressively and defensively. The difference is
between recognizing that one has, and presumably will
continue to have, opponents, and recognizing that this is
an essential feature of the activity one is pursuing. The
obvious advantage of the " higher-order " recognition is
(assuming my present analysis to be acceptable) that it
makes the parties concerned aware of an important truth.
But this will be a truth of high-order, whose significance can
best be understood in terms of its important everyday
applications. The answer we are seeking must enable us
to meet the following questions: How will a Christian of
denomination X be likely to be affected in respect of his
intellectual allegiance to X (and consequently repudiation
of Y and Z) by the recognition which we are here discussing?
Similarly, how will the student of the arts be affected by
recognizing that different groups of critics not only disagree,
but in the nature of the casc must be expected to disagree in

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 193

their fundamental view-points? And so on for the other

cases. (II) It is also important to stress that the results with
which we are here concerned are not to be of a predictable
or causally explainable character. The practical and
theoretical operations which recognition of a concept as
essentially contested makes possible are logically appraisable
and justifiable operations, such as we would expect from a
reasonable being, for all that, for special psychological or
social causes, a given individual may fail to entertain them.
It is therefore neither redundant nor irrelevant to insist that
examination of these results is an important part of our
analysis.
Part of the answer to our question seems to be this.
Recognition of a given concept as essentially contested
implies recognition of rival uses of it (such as oneself
repudiates) as not only logically possible and humanly
" likely ", but as of permanent potential critical value to
one's own use or interpretation of the concept in question;
whereas to regard any rival use as anathema, perverse,
bestial or lunatic means, in many cases, to submit oneself
to the chronic human peril of underestimating the value of
one's opponents' positions. One very desirable consequence
of the required recognition in any proper instance of
essential contestedness might therefore be expected to be a
marked raising of the level of quality of arguments in the
disputes of the contestant parties. And this would mean
prima facie, a justification of the continued competition for
support and acknowledgement between the various contes-
ting parties.
But as against this optimistic view the following darker
considerations might be urged. So long as contestant users
of any essentially contested concept believe, however
deludedly, that their own use of it is the only one that can
command honest and informed approval, they are likely to
persist in the hope that they will ultimately persuade and
convert all their opponents by logical means. But once let
the truth out of the bag-i.e., the essential contestedness of
the concept in question-then this harmless if deluded hope

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 194 W. B. GALLIt.

may well be replaced by a

to damn the heretics and to exterminate the unwanted.
This consideration might give us pause until we recall
that spokesmen of Reason have always brought peril as well
as light to their hearers. The consequences of the present
requirement-recognition of essential contestedness in
appropriate cases-is in this respect nothing extraordinary.
In any case the above objection gives too much credit to the
cc reasonableness " of those who will employ reason only
given the prospect of eventual knock-out victory. The
relevant fact is, rather, that evil men always want quick
victories; they prefer the elimination of opponents to-day
to their conversion-or even their adequate indoctrination
-to-morrow. Furthermore, what is being brought to our
notice by the present objection is simply a possible causal
consequence, such as is in no way logically justifiable, of
recognition of a given concept as essentially contested, and
has therefore no logical relevance to our present analysis.
My last outstanding question may be put as follows:
What are the bearings of my suggested new grouping of
concepts upon the central normative and appraisive concepts
of ethics ? Or, more specifically: if certain very important
appraisive concepts (e.g., those of democracy and social
justice) turn out to be of an essentially contested character,
how should this affect the common assumption that the
central concepts of ethics are uniquely describable and such
as to command universal assent?
Clearly I cannot attempt even to state, still less to defend,
a convincing answer to these questions, in the space left at
my disposal. They are, nevertheless, probably the most
important questions that the present paper raises: and I
shall therefore attempt a brief further restatement of them,
to show their bearing upon the terms " moral goodness " and
" duty ". Then I shall leave my readers to draw their own
conclusions and (should they be interested) to guess at mine.
(a) Moralists commonly claim that, among the many
over-lapping senses of the word " good ", we can all detect
one use of it, its fundamental use in moral discussion, about

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 195

whose propriety in any particular situation no two rational

(or morally developed) persons will disagree, given that they
share precisely the same factual knowledge of the situation
in question. Certain saintly characters, or supremely noble
actions, e.g., self-sacrifice, are usually cited as illustrations.
But these, like other supreme sources of illumination, are
apt, through their unquestionable force, only to intensify the
surrounding darkness. Some of our moral appraisals
command universal assent, but by no means all do so. It
is of the first importance to insist that we also use the word
" good " (or its near-equivalents and derivatives) with a
definitely moral, but just as definitely questionable force:
witness such phrases as " a good Christian ", " a good
patriot ", "a good democrat ", "a good painter " (when
we mean a sincere, sensitive, intelligent, always rewarding-
but not necessarily a " great " or a " fine " painter), " a
good husband," and so on. In all these uses, it seems
perfectly clear, our concept of the activity in and through
which the man's goodness is said to be manifested, is of an
essentially contested character. " He was a good Christian "
says X, to which Y replies tartly " I suppose you mean he
was a good Churchman". "' He was a good husband"
says X, and Y replies " Agreed that he was faithful, sober,
hard-working and never raised his hand or his voice,
J3UT . . . ." Now I have yet to read a philosophical
moralist who took seriously the difficulty which these
examples illustrate.
(b) To do one's duty in a particular situation involves,
we would all agree, some reference to what any other
rational being would do " in a similar situation ". But many
of our duties arise out of our adherence to one particular
use of an essentially contested concept, e.g., social justice.
Now the question arises: Shall reference to such adherence
be counted as a necessary part of any " similar situation "?
If so, then the universality criterion of duty is rendered
trivial: if not, then, anyhow in a great many very important
issues, it becomes inapplicable. But can either of these
results satisfy any perceptive and serious moralist?

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196 W. B. GALLIE.

CCNCLUDING REMARKS

I should like in conclusion to anticipate two lines of

criticism: (I) It may be complained that despite all its
references to " reasonableness ", to the " logic of con-
version ", etc., this paper is only a disguised betrayal of
reason, a further contribution to what Mr. Hampshire has
so aptly called " the new obscurantism ". To find reason-
ableness in the pursuit of inevitably endless conflicts-is
not this as paradoxical and as dangerous as to find it in the
dictates of the heart and the blood or in the actual march of
history? Reason, according to so many great philosophical
voices, is essentially something which demands and deserves
universal assent-the manifestation of whatever makes for
unity among men and/or the constant quest for such beliefs
as could theoretically be accepted as satisfactory by all men.
This account of reason may be adequate so long as our chief
concern is with the use or manifestation of reason in science;
but it fails completely as a description of those elements of
reason that make possible discussions of religious, political and
artistic problems. Since the Enlightenment a number of
brilliant thinkers seem positively to have exulted in
emphasising the irrational elements in our thinking in these
latter fields. My purpose in this paper has been to combat,
and in some measure correct, this dangerous tendency.
(II) It might be objected that my proposed new grouping
of concepts simply presents in fake logical guise certain facts
about our uses of a number of concepts-facts which might
prove important to historians of ideas and sociologists, but
which in no way explain to us what those uses are. In
general (the supposed objector would continue) there are
two quite distinct senses in which we can be said to under-
stand a concept or theory or other tool of thought: first, the
" logical " sense, in which to understand it means (a) to
conform to, and (b) to be able to state, the rules governing
its proper use; and second, the " historical " sense, in which
to understand it means to know (something about) the whole
gamut of conditions that have led to, and that now sustain,

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 ESSENTIALLY CONTESTED CONCEPTS. 197

the way we use it. Now to confuse these two senses is to

prolong, in a rather sophisticated form, the " historicist
fallacy ". I agree, of course, that we must avoid confusing
these two senses; but it seems to me equally important that
we should see aright the connexion between them in
different sorts of case.
This connexion is most tenuous, when the appropriate
use of a concept would appear to mean simply, its use for
deductive purposes: as, for example, when the meaning of
any well-established concept of the physical sciences is
equated with its predictive power. In this kind of case,
clarification or improved understanding of a concept would
naturally be taken to mean improvement in one's skill and
confidence in using it-thanks to, e.g., a full and clear
statement of the rules governing its use. But quite clearly
this account will not serve for all concepts, and in particular
not for appraisive concepts. Admittedly, the use of some
appraisive concepts may appear to be predictive; but this
appearance is, I think, always deceptive, and is due to the
fact that the subject of the appraisal (a man, a character, a
practice, a kind of action) is such that any reference to it
is always latently predictive. Thus, to call a man wise is
in a sense to predict his behaviour; but it is not specifically
in virtue of what is predicted or predictable about him that we
term him " wise ", nor yet because his known behaviour
can be projected into the future, or for that matter into the
unknown past. Similarly, we call X a good poet because
he has written some good poems-but this involves no
prediction that he will produce more, and no retrodiction
to hidden (or burnt) adolescent masterpieces. Quite simply
to appraise something positively is to assert that it fulfils
certain generally recognized standards: and this being so,
we should expect clarification or improved understanding
of an appraisive concept to be obtained in a very different
way from clarification of any concept of science.
But how then can it be obtained? I shall simply assert
my view that such clarification-if it is to be worthy of the
name-must include, not simply consideration of different

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198 W. B. GALLIA.

uses of a given appraisive concept as we use it to-day, but

consideration of such instances as display its growth and
development. For, if we want to see just what we are doing,
when we apply a given appraisive concept, then one way of
learning this is by asking from what vaguer or more confused
or more restricted version (or ancestor) our currently accepted
version of the concept in question has been derived.
Commonly we come to see more precisely what a given
scientific concept means by contrasting its deductive powers
with those of other closely related concepts: in the case of
an appraisive concept, we can best see more precisely what
it means by comparing and contrasting our uses of it now
with other earlier uses of it or its progenitors, i.e., by
considering how it came to be. If this be historicism, I
cannot see that it is fallacious; and if it be acceptable in
connexion with appraisive concepts, then it is well worth
asking where the limit of its acceptability should be drawn.

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