The phrase "competing conceptions" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing different ideas, theories, or perspectives that are in opposition to each other.
Example: "In the debate over climate change, there are several competing conceptions of how to address the issue effectively."
Alternatives: "conflicting ideas" or "rival interpretations".
For only if citizen participants in the public discourse that underlies justice are assumed to have (and provided the basic resources for having) capacities for competent self- reflection, can the public defense and discussion of competing conceptions of justice take place (cf. Gaus 1996, Parts II and III, Gaus 2011).
At the heart of the case "are two competing conceptions of the institution of marriage, and of its central purpose," Cooper declared.
Sarotte describes a host of competing conceptions of post-cold-war Europe that flourished, mutated and perished in the maelstrom of events that led up to German unity.
The 5-to-4 decision revealed competing conceptions of the exclusionary rule, which requires the suppression of some evidence obtained through police misconduct, and suggested that the court's commitment to the rule was fragile.
Jaffa would do well to embrace Aristotle's teacher Plato, whose unyielding belief in eternal and absolute perfection seems to suit Jaffa's intolerance for the messiness of competing conceptions of the Good.
The central question was this: Is it possible to define principles of justice and individual rights in a way that is neutral toward competing conceptions of virtue and the good life?
Has the Supreme Court of Citizens United (and, potentially, of health-care reform) failed to persuade the President that he must speak out on his competing conception of the Constitution?
As financial systems lurched from crisis to crisis, a competing conception of what constituted the money supply and of what made it grow or contract emerged.
Rather, we find competing philosophical conceptions of equal treatment serving as interpretations of moral equality.
This breadth is intended to achieve neutrality between competing substantive conceptions of the good; for example, Rawls' "social primary goods," such as income and wealth, were chosen for their utility in promoting widely differing conceptions.
It seems false that we can respect persons and at the same time tell them to leave their fundamental commitments behind in public discourse, and it seems false also that some purely rational but still action-guiding component can be separated off from these competing substantive conceptions of the good (see Wolterstorff, "An Engagement with Rorty").
