Robin Farquharson
Robin Farquharson
- Reginald Robin Farquharson** (3 October 1930 – 1 April 1973) was an academic whose interest in mathematics and politics led him to work on [[game-theory]] and social choice theory. He wrote an influential analysis of voting systems in his doctoral thesis, later published as *Theory of Voting*, and conjectured the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem together with the philosopher and logician Michael Dummett.
Farquharson diagnosed himself as suffering from bipolar disorder (manic depression), and episodes of mania made it difficult for him to obtain a permanent university position and also resulted in him losing commercial employment. In later years, he dropped out of mainstream society, and became a prominent counter-cultural figure in late-1960s London. Farquharson wrote an account of his unconventional life in his 1968 book, Drop Out!, in which he described a week of being homeless in London. In 1973 he died from burns associated with an arson, for which two persons were convicted of unlawful killing.
Education Robin Farquharson was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal, South Africa, 1944–46. He earned a B.A. in South Africa from Rhodes University College, Grahamstown (1947–50). Subsequently studying at Brasenose and Nuffield Colleges, University of Oxford (1950–53), he obtained a second-class B.A. honours PPE degree. For his B.A. 1953–54 (?), his studies at this time were overseen by David Butler of Nuffield College, Oxford University. His D.Phil. was awarded in June 1958 from Nuffield College for his thesis entitled "An Approach to a Pure Theory of Voting Procedures". He was given a Research Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge in 1964. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
While an undergraduate at Oxford, Farquharson was a contemporary of John Searle, Rupert Murdoch, and Sir Michael Dummett. In the preface to Probability and Scientific Inference (1957) George Spencer Brown thanked Farquharson for his help in discussing and clarifying some of the ideas in the book, before publishing his paper.
Research on voting Farquharson wrote a monograph on the analysis of voting procedures and several papers, including a notable paper with Michael Dummett that conjectured the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem.
Strategic voting Farquharson published influential articles on the theory of voting: in particular, in an article with Michael Dummett, he conjectured that deterministic voting rules with more than three issues faced endemic strategic voting. a philosopher and former student of Kenneth J. Arrow and John Rawls, and by Mark Satterthwaite, an economist.
After the establishment of the Farquarson-Dummett conjecture by Gibbard and Sattherthwaite, Michael Dummett contributed three proofs of the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem in his monograph on voting.
Theory of Voting In the field of political game-theory, Farquharson's main contribution was his exposition of the Condorcet paradox regarding the sincerity of voters. The problem was initially raised by Pliny the Younger and then picked up again in the political pamphlets of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who was a significant influence on Farquharson.
- Theory of Voting* was originally Farquharson's doctoral thesis but was deemed to be of such a high quality it was later published as a book in its own right. Although written in 1958, when his doctorate was awarded, it was eventually published in 1969, by Yale University Press. The main reason given for the delay in publication is that Farquharson insisted that the logical choice diagrams be printed in colour, which they eventually were, in black, white and red.
The book won the Monograph Prize in the field of Social Sciences, awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Mental illness At some point, Farquharson came to diagnose himself as suffering from several mental illnesses including bipolar disorder (manic depression) and cyclothymia.
Mental health activism After fully dropping out, Farquharson did some work supporting the mental health patient reform groups of the late 1960s, working with organisations such as the Mental Patients' Union. He wrote, campaigned and argued with other members of the group for mental patients to have a greater say in their own treatment. He also helped to secure squatted sites and rent houses for groups to hold meetings and simply for a place to live.
Farquharson was a mental health activist working both with Tommie Ritchie in the Scottish Union of Mental Patients (SUMP) during 1972 and then the Mental Patients Union in 1973, shortly before his death. He was the first member of SUMP from outside Hartwood Hospital.
<blockquote> We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides: But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.
– Matthew Arnold, "Morality". </blockquote>
Essentially the book is an account of Farquharson finding himself homeless and with little money and many debts, both through circumstance and his own actions. He initiated an experiment commencing on Monday 20 November 1967: he set out to forsake money (several times and with varying success) as a kind of restrictive social evil. This leaves him with very little option but to sleep rough and stay with friends or acquaintances now and again. The book includes a chapter on the free help offered by Rhaune Laslett and the Notting Hill Neighbourhood Service.
Many people see the book as a slightly forced and therefore somewhat inauthentic attempt to slum it with the lower classes in that Robin is so often bailed out by either good fortune, the kindness of strangers or old friends. It is much easier to step into a life of destitution like a puddle and to briskly leave it if the water becomes too cold knowing that there is money behind you and lots of people who are prepared to help you, for a short while at least.
The book is similar in style and content to other works of psycho-geography written by the situationists. (Indeed, Farquharson went on to form the Situationist Housing Association to provide accommodation for People Not Psychiatry). Many sections of the book simply list the areas of London Farquharson has walked through, including the names of streets and buildings he passes, interspersed with events and acquaintances he makes along the way.
It is the flux of his mental state and the variety of situations he encounters that make the book an interesting and vibrant account of London in the late 1960s. He copies information on a notice board, and rates graffiti in a public toilet for spelling, grammar and general interest.
Political activity In 1965 Farqharson's South African passport was revoked as a result of his part in the lobbying, on behalf of SANROC, for South Africa's exclusion from the Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964. He was rumoured to have been a member of the political White Panther movement.
He became a British subject in 1968.
He is also said to have helped tear down the walls at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.