By Clare Jarmy Head of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
On Wednesday, Bedales was very lucky to welcome Professor Simon Blackburn to speak on the subject ‘What is Good?’ in the newly renovated Lupton Hall. Mainly aimed at the Sixth Form, Bedales PRE A Level students were joined by around 70 students from Churcher’s College, Alton College and Queen Mary’s College.
Professor Blackburn, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, started with a very contemporary dilemma. On the one hand, it is hard to say that ‘good’ or ‘evil’ are part of the world in the same way that dogs, chairs and pizzas are part of the world (as GE Moore would say, this is to make something non-natural into something natural –a naturalistic fallacy), yet, don’t we also want to say that there are things that are good, and things that are evil?
Many students are faced with the dilemma that perhaps in ethics, it is all just subjective: just a matter of taste. On the other hand, we also feel passionately about ethical issues. Students want to convince others about the morality of veganism, or the immorality of factory conditions in less developed economies. No problem, Blackburn says. We can meaningfully talk ethically, even if we are dubious about ethical ‘facts’. Look to the practice, he says: what would someone with practical wisdom, someone who is good at ‘acting well’, do?
After a great talk, there were some excellent questions, and some meaningful discussion. Professor Blackburn was extremely generous with his time, staying into the evening with a smaller meeting of the Philosophy Society. In this talk, he was trying to convince us to become ‘infidels’ – something beyond atheist – we should not care about the question of God’s existence. To read more about his views on religion, see here (site-wide access at Bedales; subscription required elsewhere).
Richard Lushington, Bursar, manages the process of means-testing for bursary awards, the majority of which are for less than 75% of the annual fees. The school wants to do more to broaden access, increase diversity and offer full financial support, so has established the 
In the gardens we have lots of vegetables growing apace: broad beans, garlic, shallots, courgettes, beans, peas, potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflowers, asparagus to name but a few, and an enormous pumpkin patch – so watch this space come the autumn! All this produce will be used for cooking and making things in ODW, from the pizzas on a Wednesday to the breads and cakes we make every Thursday. Block 3s have also been busy planting up early crops for their Parents’ Day celebration which will be full of delicious produce including lots of radishes, carrots, salad leaves and flowers.
In the kitchens we have been busy getting ready for events, making lots of sausages, plus curing our own salami, chorizo, and even having a go at our first Bedales ‘Parma’ ham, which will be ready in a year’s time. We made 100 Litres of super healthy raw cider vinegar with our apples last year, and have bottled it ready to sell on Parents’ Day. We also added some of last year’s frozen raspberries to some of it, making a delicious and beautiful smelling raspberry vinegar, as well as chive flower vinegar. The students will be busy making butter and simple cheese over the next few weeks, and flavouring these with foraged herbs, greens and flowers.
After a well-earned lunch we went back to learn how to finish off the posts and rails. For the posts we had to mark out the location of the mortice and drill 12 holes into the post, this then needed cleaning up with a very sharp chisel. We created six slots for the rail to go into. This brings me onto the most difficult bit – making the tenons, which is basically a practice of shaping the end of the rail to make it fit into the post. This is usually done with a chainsaw, but in true Bedalian fashion we had to do it the traditional way: using an axe and draw knife. This slow and painful process consisted of chopping the corners off the quartered bits of chestnut with an axe and then shaving of vast amounts of leftover wood with the draw knife.
We began working on our project by showing Dave, from The Creative Coppice Company, some of our rough sketches and ideas and then we started measuring out some of the sides. Once we had all the sides measured we then calculated that we needed six poles for our design. As a group we started to scrape the bark off the 2 .75m chestnut logs in preparation for marking-out and cutting. Getting set up and trying to ensure all measurements were in the correct orientation on a round pole is very satisfying, yet quite intensive and time-consuming.