Fichte on social reproduction and the division of labour

As part of his system of political economy, Fichte has a worked-out theory of the social division of labour in which public recognition of different forms of productive activity is part of a rightful society's basic constitution. Indeed, for Fichte, to be a citizen of the Rechtstaat is in large part to have a recognized occupation (FNR III: 211). Fichte even acknowledges that part of the duty of citizens is to contribute to the reproduction of their society (FNR III: 360). Yet despite all this, it is not at all clear how or where the labour of social reproduction figures into Fichte's division of labour; indeed, it seems to be missing altogether. I call this the ‘problem of missing reproductive labour’ in Fichte. The main contribution of my paper is to address this problem by critically reconstructing Fichte's complex views regarding the family, socially reproductive labour, and the social division of labour.