However essential it may be to emphasize the pure and unconditional self detennination of the will as the root of duty for knowledge Erkenlllnis of the will first gained a firm foundation and point of departure in the philosophy of Kant, through the thought of its infinite autonomy (see to cling on to a merely moral point of view without making the transition to the concept of ethics reduces this gain to an empty fimnalism, and moral science to an empty rhetoric of duty for duty 's sake.