Abstract. The subject-matter of this paper is to try to find out some reference points in order to understand many dilemmas which accompanied modern society – its birth, evolution and spread throughout countries and centuries. The most frequent such dilemmas concerned the paramount criteria for choosing between individual or societal matters, between private propriety or public (state) one, between private or public interests, between market mechanism or government policy as basis of the best decisions in human actions and matters. While analyzing such inconsistencies and dilemmas we can better understand the real nature of modernity and liberalism, especially what some researchers call “postmodernity”.

Keywords: modernity; liberty; social justice; modern thinking (liberalism, democratism, utopism, socialism, communism); individualism; holism; universality.