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In his early writings on the origin of language, Fichte affirms both the primary and constitutive nature of language, and the primacy of thought over it. At the same time, he makes language both the product of freedom and a fundamental structure of man. The Reden an die deutsche Nation present a solution to this circle by making language a fundamental element of being-in-the-world of man and of his social existence. By thus removing language from the contingency of individual decisions, Fichte presents language as being the natural and original form of knowledge and truth.