The progress of society towards development and modernism gave birth to new ideologies and social thought, which provided an analysis of the kind of society humanity evolved to be. With the dominance of modern philosophical thought in the modern society, we are confronted with various ideologies that provide a critique of society's traditional views about freedom. Freedom as the privilege of humanity, like society, has evolved through the years. And with the onset of modernism, a new definition and conceptualization of freedom also developed.

             Philosophers Paulo Freire and Mortimer Adler pursued the objective to determine and define freedom that is appropriate in the context of modernism. While both endeavored to explore the nature of freedom in modern society, Freire and Adler differed in their focus of analysis. While Adler explored freedom as it relates to the concept of goodness and justice, Freire determined how fear of freedom is created, developed, and instilled in the mind of the oppressed people in modern society. .

             Through a reading of Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and Adler's "Six Great Ideas," this paper posits that freedom for Adler is one that is, firstly, 'good for society,' and secondly, 'morally right and just' for the majority. Freire's notion of fear of freedom, meanwhile, is cultivated by the long tradition of oppression of individuals who have been thoroughly exposed to dependence and oppression, that the thought of finally achieving "independence and responsibility" is considered a frightening possibility for them.

             Adler's discussion of freedom was applied in his analysis of the philosophical issue of the "primacy of the right over the good." In his discussion, Adler asserted that in contrast to some philosophical beliefs, good actually emerges primarily over rightness (or wrongness). This is because, if truly right has primacy over good, then "we should be able to determine what is right or just in our conduct towards others without any consideration of what is really good for them.