Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) is a towering figure in modern thought, but one who has hitherto been severely underappreciated. Michael Forster seeks to rectify that situation by exploring the full range of his philosophy, and showing its enormous influence in the history of ideas - its impact on major thinkers such as Hegel and Nietzsche, and its seminal role in the creation of whole new disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, and comparative literature. After an introduction on Herder’s intellectual biography, philosophical style, and general program in philosophy, there are chapters on his philosophy of language, his hermeneutics, his theory of translation, his contribution of the philosophical foundations for both linguistics and cultural anthropology, his philosophy of mind, his aesthetics, his moral philosophy, his philosophy of history, his political philosophy, his philosophy of religion, and his intellectual influence.