When I read that polit­i­cal philoso­phers vote less often than other philoso­phers (and polit­i­cal sci­en­tists) I was reminded of the book Can a Robot be Human?.

This book touches on the logic behind vot­ing, and comes to the con­clu­sion that — for an indi­vid­ual — it is point­less because no elec­tion has ever been decided on one person’s vote. Of course, this is negated if you announce this to the world or per­suade oth­ers not to vote too.

My first thought was that polit­i­cal sci­en­tists believe in the ideal democ­racy and there­fore vote; polit­i­cal philoso­phers realise the truth, so don’t waste their time. Then again, ratio­nal choice the­ory says that voter turnout should be zero!

Also from The Splin­tered Mind: Ethics books are more widely stolen from  libraries than other phi­los­o­phy books.

via Mind Hacks