From the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

Here's your host, Scott Bertram.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to another edition of The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour.

On this episode, we talked with Dr. Nathan Schleeder from Hillsdale's Philosophy and Religion Department

about a brand new online course offered by Hillsdale College on Western Philosophy.

Alan Gelsa will tell us all about the life of General Robert E. Lee.

And we'll speak with Matt Meyen from Hillsdale in D.C. about Moore's Utopia and Socialism.

We're joined now by Dr. Nathan Schleader. He's Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Hillsdale

College and also your guide, your teacher,

to the new introduction to Western Philosophy course available at online.hillsdale.edu.

Dr. Schleeder, thanks for joining us.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

As I mentioned, the course is now available. People can find it at online.hillsdale.edu.

14 total lectures, 13, given by you alone.

Let's ask this question first.

What is philosophy as we are to understand it?

Is it just this means of thinking hard about things?

How do you define philosophy?

That's a great question. The easiest answer is to go right back to the etymology of the word,

the love of wisdom, philosophy, and two things stand out.

And that etymology, the first is love, this passion, this desire on the part

of human beings to want to know the truth about reality. Aristotle refers to that

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