Michelle Kosch offers a systematic, historically informed reconstruction of Fichte's ethical theory of the Jena period, highlighting that theory's very substantial potential for contribution to various contemporary debates. One of Fichte's most important ideas - that nature can place limits on our ability to govern ourselves, and that anyone who values autonomy is thereby committed to the value of basic research and of the development of autonomy-enhancing technologies - has received little attention in the interpretative literature on Fichte, and has little currency in contemporary ethics. Kosch aims to address both deficits.