The phrase "essentially contested" is a correct and commonly used term in written English, particularly in academic and philosophical contexts.
It is used to describe a concept or idea that is subject to ongoing debate and disagreement, with no clear or universally accepted definition. This term was first coined by philosopher W.B. Gallie in 1956. Example: "The notion of 'truth' is essentially contested, with various philosophical and cultural perspectives offering conflicting definitions and interpretations."
Religious identity has now become an essentially contested achievement, forged in an exploding market of offers.
As such a project, philosophical anthropology now has the status of what, in another context, the English political theorist W.B. Gallie called an "essentially contested concept".
What we are, perhaps distinctively, is a nation where law is "essentially contested" in terms of rights, including the right to touch an inner thigh and say it was an outer.
Taylor Mill may therefore be destined to remain an essentially contested figure in the history of philosophy.
Nevertheless, it is clear that formulating a "theory" of the concept will involve more than merely uncovering the obscure details of the idea's essence, for autonomy, like many concepts central to contentious moral or political debate is itself essentially contested.
Lukes suggests another, more radical, explanation for the essentially contested nature of the concept of power: our conceptions of power are, according to him, themselves shaped by power relations.
The merit schema makes it essentially contestable what counts as funny, good, or honorable, whereas what counts as red is not essentially contestable or often contested.
The industry also says that the uranium is essentially immobile -- a point contested by environmentalists, who say it can migrate very slowly.
The precise history of Sealand is contested, but here is, essentially, how it came to be.
Even before Mr. Bradley quit, the Democratic caucuses had already been declared essentially irrelevant, in comparison with the hotly contested Republican primary last month that drew a record 573,000 voters.
Despite the appearance of a closely contested race and a vulnerable Democratic president, turnout was essentially flat or depressed, particularly in swing states, from the beginning.
