The contents are as follows:

Interpretive Essay

• Introduction
• Professor Fichte at Jena and His "Strange" New Essay
• "Placing" Fichte's Essay on Language: Systematic and Methodological Considerations
• An Introduction to Fichtean Semiotics: Action, Signification, and "Arbitrary Signs"
• The "Idea" of Language in General
• The Genealogy of Signs
• From Semiotics to Linguistics
• An Excursus on Writing
• Systematic and Interpretive Issues in Fichte's "Linguistic Narrative"
• Fichte's Linguistic Narrative: The "Origin" of Words
• Fichte's Linguistic Narrative: The "Origin" of Grammar
• Epilogue: Questions of Influence

Translations

• J. G. Fichte: "On the Linguistic Capacity and the Origin of Language"
• Ernst Platner: Selections from the Philosophical Aphorisms
• J. G. Fichte: Lecture Notes on Platner's Aphorisms
• F. K. Forberg: "Concerning the Origin of Language"