Thompson, Bloch, and A Priori Moral Judgements

            While I really enjoyed this week’s topic and found all of the readings interesting, I particularly enjoyed reading both of the E.P. Thompson writings, as they were educating, entertaining, and thought-provoking.  Something in particular stuck out to me when reading “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in Eighteenth Century.”  Thompson’s argument that historians “are guilty of a crass economic reductionism,” touched upon something that I believe is relevant to last week’s Bloch reading.  I tried to articulate the idea that the popular opinion that sways the hereditary process of an orphan’s fief cannot be subjugated to a “crass economic reductionism.”  Rather, the public believes that an orphan’s fief ought not be given away, just as the actions of the crowd for Thompson believes that “prices ought, in times of dearth…be regulated, and that the profiteer put himself outside of society” (112).  

            Thompson goes on to write, “It is more important to note the total socio-economic context within which the market operated, and the logic (my italics) of crowd pressure” (125).  While it is true, as Thompson acknowledges, that economic factors are of huge historical importance in understanding the actions of historical agents, these agents often act upon their reason/logic rather than the pain of an empty belly, and I do not believe that this reason is always reducible to material factors.   While perhaps extracted from empirical observation, it seems that historical agents often act upon a priori moral judgments that cannot be reduced to material factors.  Therefore, I greatly appreciate the efforts of Bloch and Thompson to delve into the minds of their subjects.