This introduction provides a comparative overview of the key theories of society. It spans from Enlightenment thinkers (Hobbes, Hume, Smith) to early sociologists (Comte, Marx, Spencer) and sociological classics of the first (Weber, Durkheim, Simmel) and second generations (Horkheimer/Adorno, Mannheim, Geiger), extending to Talcott Parsons and the debates surrounding him (Elias, Habermas, Luhmann), as well as power-analytical (Foucault, Bourdieu, Coleman) and restructuring theoretical approaches (Beck, Bauman, Urry), culminating in more recent perspectives on world society (Wallerstein, Eisenstadt, Meyer). The central question is how society is conceived and how the relationship between the individual and society is framed. This overview successfully highlights the various theoretical traditions while also relating them to one another.