gallows/Kant

[Phillip P. Muth]

"Suppose that someone says his lust is irresistible when the
desired object and opportunity are present.  Ask him whether
he would not control his passion if, in front of the house
where he has this oportunity, a gallows were erected on which
he would be hanged immediately after gratifying his lust.  We
do not have to guess very long what his answer would be.  But
ask him whether he thinks it would be possible for him
to overcome his love for life, however great it may be, if his
sovereign threatened him with the same sudden death unless he
made false deposition against an honorable man whom the ruler
wished to destroy under a plausible pretext.  Whether he would
or not he perhaps will not venture to say; but that it should
be possible for him he would certainly admit without
hestitation.  He judges, therefore, that he can do something
because he knows he ought, and he recognizes that he is free--a
fact which, without the moral law, would have remained unknown
to him." Kant Critique of Practical Reason

Is Pynchon responding to this?

Parke Muth