The question of the relation between the individual and society was the starting point for many discussions in ancient thought, but it is certainly a question that is still very relevant today. Many thinkers like Aristotle argued that man is a social being by nature and as such strives to live in a polis that will help him realize his full potential and lead a fulfilled and perfect life. In a sense, the theory of the social contract is opposed to this conception of a man as a being who is by nature social. It presents man as a being with antisocial tendencies, who is incapable of living in a community. The theorists Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau also took man as a primarily individual being as the starting premise of their social contracts. However, analyzing their theories, this paper concluded that theorists took this premise as the starting premise of their theories because they were inspired by their social state. This paper will therefore try to show how their description of man in a natural state is essentially a description of man in a civil society in which capitalist social relations are emerging. In other words, the paper will show how these theorists built models of civil societies based on their assumptions about human nature.