Skepticism and Post-Reformation Ethics: Richard Hooker's Galen

Closely examining Richard Hooker's rhetoric in book 4 of the Lawes, this essay shows how Hooker's notion of reformation was indebted to Galen's concept of neutrum and mixture over and above the Aristotelian notion of the mean. While Aristotle's moral philosophy led reformers like Thomas Cartwright to posit a reformation by contraries—that is, an exclusive and extremist church without any tolerance for religious hybridity—Galen offered Hooker a method of reform that allowed for a considerable synthesis between reason and experience, led to a more pragmatic ethics, and supported a church that was both reformed and inclusive. This essay reveals the limitations of Aristotelian moral philosophy for post-Reformation ethics and complicates Hooker's orthodoxy by highlighting his skeptical critique of normativity and by examining its effects on his attitude toward adiaphora and custom. Finally, this essay argues that one particularly significant outcome of Hooker's pragmatism is his recognition of atheism as a category of belief in late sixteenth-century England.