This chapter, which focuses on the nature and function of the popular method in Fichte's transcendental philosophy, is framed by preliminary reflections on the political status of philosophical knowledge in classical antiquity and early modern Europe. On this extended socio-epistemological basis and in light of Kant's precedence in conjoining the scientific and the popular in Enlightenment philosophy, I present Fichte's works in the popular method as the other half of his overall philosophical project, designed to assure the wider influence of the Wissenschaftslehre. In particular, I argue that Fichte's exoteric and esoteric philosophies are quite akin in their efforts to find ideas and images for conveying a complex of thoughts that essentially eludes teaching as well as learning.¹