text: Added note: I wouldn't say the problem with defining freedom is whether the words are "positive" enough. The problem seems more that freedom is "abstract," so differences in degree of freedom are intangible or vague and hard to describe. It is easier to describe in contrast to the lack of freedom, or oppression, where the difference in degree of "restrictions" on freedom are concrete and easier to compare.\n\nCan you reword your sentence to explain that since freedom is an abstract concept, the degrees of freedom are intangible and hard to measure or describe in practical terms. So freedom is more easily described in terms of the opposite condition, since degrees of oppression, or restrictions on freedom, are concrete phenomena that are easier to describe in comparison.     \n===========================\nI would drop the first "positive" instead.\n\nbecause no other words....\n\ncome across as positive.\nconvey or carry the same positive message.\n\netc.\ncapture the same essence or ideals.\nconnote the same meaning/feeling/intensity.\nare as strong.\nare appropriate or as accurate.\ndefinite it or express it as well\ndescribe it as closely or accurately\nare as ideal.\nare emphatic enough.