卢梭笔下的“政治”，就其产生而言，其并非伴随着人的产生而出现，它是一种人为的产物，人类经历了从无政治演变为有政治的过程；就其性质而言，在绝对意义上，政治都不是善的，但在相对意义上，政治有好坏之分。而卢梭在《社会契约论》中所建构的就是好的政治、正当政治。与此同时，我们从卢梭的文本中不难看出他对自然状态下人的境况的赞美与向往，以至于他试图远离政治生活，过一种非政治的生活。基于以上理解，本文将依据对卢梭相关文本的分析，以卢梭有关正当的政治生活的思想为主线，阐明卢梭就正当政治为何应当建立、如何建立、具有何种局限性等问题的理论观点，并探讨卢梭的这些政治哲学思考可能带给我们的启迪。

第一章主要追溯了人的生活从无政治到有政治的演变过程。在卢梭看来，自然状态下的人处于孤立状态，其语言和理性的官能是潜在的，自爱和怜悯是他的自然情感。偶然发生的自然灾变使得人活动范围受限，人们慢慢开始交往并相互依赖，产生了家庭。随着交往范围的扩大，出现了野蛮人社会；该时期是人类的黄金时代。但农业和冶金的发明葬送了人的幸福生活，开启了人类衰落的历史。公民社会人为的不平等以及强者制定的法律最终导致人类进入了新的自然状态。为了阻止人类的衰落，人们必须做出改变。

第二章主要论述了卢梭如何构建正当的政治及其如何使人实现了政治自由和道德自由。在卢梭看来，既然人已脱离自然状态，政治生活已是避无可避，那么人类最好的选择便是过一种正当的政治生活。政治的正当性源自人民的一致同意，人们相互订立社会契约建立国家。公民们通过定期参加集会和公开投票表达自身意志，投票的结果彰显了公意之所在。在卢梭的共和国中，人们虽丧失了自然自由，却获得了政治自由和更高的道德自由。

第三章的内容主要围绕正当政治的局限性展开。在卢梭看来，正当的政治生活虽然具有前述优点，但也是有其局限性的。它的局限主要体现在：立法者与人民主权原则之间存在张力，作为道德基础的良心不可确证，正当的政治生活仍会在一定程度上压抑人的自然情感。因此，卢梭将一种非政治的生活视为对一些人而言的可选项，他们在成为远离政治的孤独漫步者之时找到了自身的美好生活所在。

在结语部分，本文认为，无论是高度政治化的公民、还是在社会内部生活却又保持着自然人性的爱弥儿，又或是非政治的孤独漫步者，均是卢梭对于如何返回自然、实现人的自足性（完满）所做的不同尝试，是对自然状态下人的境况的模仿。卢梭的上述思考给我们当下的理论与实践生活带来了重要启示。

In Rousseau’s writings, "politics" does not emerge with the creation of man, but is an artificial product so that man has evolved from the absence of politics to the presence of politics; in its nature, politics is not good in the absolute sense, but in the relative sense, it could be good or bad. And what Rousseau constructs in The Social Contract is a good politics, a legitimate politics. At the same time, we can easily see from Rousseau's texts that he praised and aspired to the human condition in the state of nature, so that he tried to stay away from political life and live a non-political life. Based on the above understanding, this paper will, based on the analysis of Rousseau's relevant texts, take Rousseau's ideas about the legitimate political life as the main line, elucidate Rousseau's theoretical views on why and how legitimate politics should be established and what limits it has, and explore what these political philosophical reflections of Rousseau may bring to us.

The first chapter mainly traces the evolution of human life from the absence of politics to the presence of politics. For Rousseau, man in the state of nature is in isolation, his faculties of language and reason are latent, and self-love and compassion are his natural emotions. When natural calamities by chance restricted the range of human activities, people slowly began to interact and rely on each other, giving rise to the family. With the expansion of the scope of interaction, a barbarian society emerged, which was the golden age of mankind, but the invention of agriculture and metallurgy buried man's happy life and started the history of human decline. The artificial inequality of civil society and the laws made by the strong eventually led mankind into a new state of nature. In order to stop the decline of mankind, people must make changes.

The second chapter focuses on how Rousseau constructed legitimate politics and how it enabled men to achieve civil and moral freedom. For Rousseau, since man has been removed from the state of nature and political life is inescapable, the best option for man is to lead a legitimate political life. The legitimacy of politics derives from the unanimous consent of the people, who entered into a social contract with each other to establish a state. The citizens express their will through regular participation in assemblies and public voting, and the results of their votes show the general will. In Rousseau's republic, people lost their natural freedom but gain civil freedom and a higher level of moral freedom.

The third chapter is focused on the limits of legitimate politics. In Rousseau's view, a legitimate political life, despite its aforementioned advantages, has its limits. It is mainly reflected in the tension between the legislator and the principle of people’s sovereignty, the unverifiability of conscience as the basis of morality, and the fact that a legitimate politics still suppresses, to a certain extent, human’s natural emotions. Thus, Rousseau took a non-political life as an option for some people who find their own good life while being solitary wanderers away from politics.

In the conclusion section, this paper argues that whether it is the highly politicized citizens, Emile who lives within the society but maintains his natural humanity, or the apolitical solitary wanderer, all are different attempts by Rousseau to return to nature and achieve the self-sufficiency (completeness) of human beings, which is an imitation of the human condition in the state of nature. Rousseau's above reflections bring some important enlightenment and inspirations to our current theoretical and practical life.