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.

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.

His condition caused him to be absent frequently from his university studies, starting November 1955 to March 1957.

He was further absent from his studies after the death of his father.

As Michael Dummett recalls, in 1955 Farquharson sat the Fellowship examination for All Souls College.

On the evening before an election meeting was held to discuss Farquharson's admission as a Fellow, the Warden of the college received a telephone call, which started with the words: "Do you have a pen and paper?"

Farquharson tried to dictate what Dummett describes (he was not present himself) as a "lengthy statement in quasi-technical language, expounding a discovery in which would have solve [sic] many problems in mathematics, mathematical logic, physics, economics and the theory of voting."

Dummett's clarifies the accuracy of his recollection: "I know very well what it was like: though I was away for the year in California, Farquharson also telephoned me there in just the same manner."

Farquharson was undergoing an attack of his mental illness, which it is believed caused him to contact the College Warden.

Dummett believes that Farquharson was far and above the best candidate for the election to the college; however, the Warden chose to mention Farquharson's telephone call to the Fellows, and Dummett believes the Warden "...inferred that Farquharson had gone mad", which no doubt led to his not being elected to the senior position of Fellow at All Souls College.

Farquharson briefly describes the incident in Drop Out!: "...when as a candidate for a Fellowship of All Souls, I had destroyed my chances by a telephone call to the Warden, calling him from his high table to tell him that I had a message from God for him."

was awarded in June 1958 from Nuffield College for his thesis entitled "An Approach to a Pure Theory of Voting Procedures".

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.

At some point, Farquharson came to diagnose himself as suffering from several mental illnesses including bipolar disorder (manic depression) and cyclothymia.

In later years, he dropped out of mainstream society, and became a prominent counter-cultural figure in late-1960s London.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Dummett–Farquharson conjecture was proved by Allan Gibbard, 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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1973 he died from burns associated with an arson, for which two persons were convicted of unlawful killing.