慎到，一向被視為只是道法之間的過渡性人物，而也許是文獻殘缺零散，除了戰國時期，二千年來對幾乎沒什麼人注意到他，近來清況雖已有變化，但討論上不是說得太簡，就是推得太過，本文則期望能做到持平之論。本文以為，做為參與老子思想發展的一名大將，慎到一些創造性的思考，如因勢自為的觀人之道、「助」論的提出、公私兩立，定分止爭的法治觀、賢勢對峙的思考、排除忠孝仁義的道德牽絆等等，都成為後來道法、黃老和名法家一再出現和借用的思想論題。所以常被看成只是過渡性思想人物的慎到，其所展現之思想的想像和創造力也能獨樹一幟，成為先秦思想一顆閃亮的明星。

　　　　　Shen Tao have always been looked as a transient thinker between the Taoists and the Legalists, and owing to the incompleteness of his writings, he had been passed over for a long time. Recently there have some changes, but the discussions about Shen Tao seems too little or too much, the text hopes to treat his fragmentary writings more wholly and more honestly. Just like the Confucius' ardent conviction that there exists certain constancies of human sociopolitical order, Shen Tao' conviction builds up on the Lao-tzu' political imagination of wu-wei (無為). The originality and uniqueness of Shen Tao' political thoughts lies in these ideas: act for oneself according to the situations、the antithesis of public / private and men of worth / men of power、the theory of "utilities"、society as a structure of stringent functional specificity etc. So without claiming that Shen Tao is the father of Legalism in all its aspects, it is indeed most remarkable to discern how many of the themes of Legalism are touched upon by him in these ideas. Shen Tao is far more influential than is expected.