“社会契约论”是卢梭的一部政治哲学著作，探讨了政治权利的原理和政府的运作，筑造了人民主权理论的理论高地，为当时的资产阶级革命提供了一个理论纲领和思想指南，影响了18世纪的法国大革命乃至整个欧洲的社会转型与资产阶级革命。

让-雅克·卢梭（1712～1778），法国有名启蒙思想家、哲学家、教育家、文学家。卢梭出生于瑞士日内瓦一个钟表匠家庭，童年时给别人当过学徒。由于生活过于困苦，卢梭在16岁那年离开家，开始四处流浪和漂泊的生活。后来，卢梭搬到法国巴黎定居，并在那里开始他的写作生涯。卢梭是近代具影响力的浪漫主义思想家。他崇尚以顺应儿童自然发展规律的方式开展家庭教育。为此，他创作了有名教育理论小说《爱弥儿》。书中，他深化了爱和友谊的情感表现，让父母的教育思想摆脱陈旧的教育理论观的束缚；他使儿童睁开双眼，观察美丽多彩的大自然；他使自由成为一个儿童成长的目标；他对后来人的家庭教育方式有着深远的影响。卢梭还著有《新爱洛伊斯》《社会契约论》《忏悔录》等。

导读
BOOK I
CHAPTER 1 The Subject of Book I
CHAPTER 2 The First Societies
CHAPTER 3 The Right of the Strongest
CHAPTER 4 Slavery
CHAPTER 5 That We Must Always Go Back To an Original Covenant
CHAPTER 6 The So Pact
CHAPTER 7 The Sovereign
CHAPTER 8 Civil Society
CHAPTER 9 Of Estate
BOOK II
CHAPTER 1 That Sovereignty is Inalienable
CHAPTER 2 That Sovereignty is Indivisible
CHAPTER 3 Whether the General Will Can Err
CHAPTER 4 The Limits of Sovereign Power
CHAPTER 5 The Right of Life and Death
CHAPTER 6 On Law
CHAPTER 7 The Lawgiver
CHAPTER 8 The People
CHAPTER 9 The People: Continued
CHAPTER 10 The People: Continued
CHAPTER 11 Various Systems of Law
CHAPTER 12 Classification of Laws
BOOK III
CHAPTER 1 Of Government in General
CHAPTER 2 The Constitutive Principle of the Different Forms of Government
CHAPTER 3 Classification of Governments
CHAPTER 4 Democracy
CHAPTER 5 Aristocracy
CHAPTER 6 Monarchy
CHAPTER 7 Mixed Forms of Government
CHAPTER 8 That All Forms of Government Do Not Suit All Countries
CHAPTER 9 The Signs of a Good Government
CHAPTER 10 The Abuse of Government and its Tendency to Degenerate
CHAPTER 11 The Death of the Body Politic
CHAPTER 12 How the Sovereign Authority Maintains Itself
CHAPTER 13 The Same — Continued
CHAPTER 14 The Same — Continued
CHAPTER 15 Deputies or Representatives
CHAPTER 16 That the Institution of the Government is not a Contract
CHAPTER 17 The Institution of the Government
CHAPTER 18 Means of Preventing the Usurpation of Government
BOOK IV
CHAPTER 1 That the General Will is Indestructible
CHAPTER 2 The Suffrage
CHAPTER 3 Elections
CHAPTER 4 The Roman Comitia
CHAPTER 5 The Tribunate
CHAPTER 6 Dictatorship
CHAPTER 7 The Censorial Tribunal
CHAPTER 8 The Civil Religion
CHAPTER 9 Conclusion
术语汇编与简释