Abstract

Alisdair Macintyre's defense of the tradition of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas offers a way to answer the question "What is the good of history?" By his use of dialectical reasoning in defense of the Thomist tradition, Macintyre helps Catholic historians to see that the good of history comes from its being a handmaiden to tradition. The writings of St. Bede the Venerable and John Henry Cardinal Newman are used as examples of how Catholic historians can know and draw upon their own tradition.