Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) is regarded today as one of the great initiators of most of the humanistic disciplines. His works are steeped in reflections on the philosophy of language and epistemology derived from the relationship between language and thought, and these reflections form the basis for his theories of anthropology, history, aesthetics and critique. In the introduction there is a detailed description of Herder‹s philosophy of language, making it more accessible than it has been up to now, followed by a summary of the linguistic reflections on anthropology in the years between 1764 and 1772. After the analysis of the ‹Ursprungsschrift‹ (Treatise on the Origin of Language), the focus is on his dispute with Kant.