The article presents a selection of classical texts endeavouring to think about the formation of the social bond through two opposite points of view. The first is based upon self-interest, whether linked with rationality or not. The second tries to go beyond this merely instrumental view by taking into account three types of criticism of the self-interest paradigm: the first holds that the principle of interest must be complemented by one of benevolence, held to be as “innate” as interest; the second turns around the idea of a specific moral sense; the third elaborates on the concept of sympathy which can include the idea of moral sense.