Human beings are social animals. They live in social groups in communities and in society. Human life and society almost go together. Human beings cannot live without society. Human beings are biologically and psychologically equipped to live in groups, in society. Society has become an essential condition for human life to arise and to continue.

The relationship between individual and society is ultimately one of the profound of all the problems of social philosophy. It is both philosophical and sociological because it involves the question of practices on the one hand, and, norms and values on the other.

Human beings depend on society. It is in the society that an individual is surrounded and encompassed by culture, a societal force. It is in the society again that s/he has to conform to the norms, occupy statuses and become members of groups.

The question of the relationship between the individual and the society is the starting point of many discussions. There are two main theories regarding the relationship of the individual and society. They are the social contract theory and the organismic theory.

Social Contract Theory

The social contract theory throws light on the origin of the society. According to this theory, all human beings are born free and equal. Society came into existence because of the agreement entered into by the individuals. The classical representatives of this school of thought are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was of opinion that society came into being as a means for the protection of human beings against the consequences of their own nature. Human beings in the state of nature were in perpetual conflict with their neighbors on account of their essentially selfish nature. ‘The life of [human beings] was solitary poor, nasty, brutish and short’. Every human being was an enemy to every other human being.

Hobbes in his book Leviathan has made it clear that human beings found nothing but grief in the company of their fellows. Since the conditions in the state of nature were intolerable and human beings longed for peace, the people entered into a kind of social contract to ensure for themselves security and certainty of life and property.

By mutual agreement they decided to surrender their natural rights into the hands of a few or one with authority to command. The agreement was of each with all and of all with each other. The contract became binding on the whole community as perpetual social bond. Thus in order to protect themselves against the evil consequences of their own nature human beings organized themselves in society in order to live in peace with all.