Hillsdale College Professor Moreno Delivers Fourth Freshman Foundation Lecture
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College Dean of Social Sciences and William and Berniece Grewcock Chair in Constitutional History Paul Moreno gave the fourth lecture for the Freshman Foundation series on March 21, addressing the fourth of Hillsdale College’s four pillars: freedom.
Moreno discussed how freedom relates to the liberal arts education by training free, self-governing individuals. “The point of a liberal education is then how to teach us to use our freedom or liberty properly,” he said. “This is both the subject and the object of our education — spending four years thinking about what it means to be a human being and how we ought to live in accord with that understanding of what a human being is the subject of ethics.”
Moreno related the theories of liberty of John Winthrop, Petrarch, John Henry Newman, and other great writers and thinkers to the mission of Hillsdale College as a trustee of the Western philosophical and theological tradition of which constitutional government is the culmination. “The Western tradition of freedom properly understood finds its ultimate expression in the American experiment of liberty under law or in the Constitution,” he said.
Required for all first-year students, the Freshman Foundation series is an introduction to academic life at Hillsdale College, the partnership on a college campus, and what it means to be a Hillsdale student. The series takes place over the course of the academic year and addresses the Four Pillars of Hillsdale College in student life: learning, faith, character, and freedom. The series complements the Senior Capstone, a course offered each semester to members of the senior class and a requirement for graduation.
For photos from the lecture, click here.