This article proposes a Darwinian approach to examine the persistence and resilience of a peculiar set of misbeliefs that have flourished in intellectual circles over the last several decades. These misbeliefs, such as the prevailing antirational explanatory models within postmodern critical theory (PMCT), might be expected to perish under the weight of critical scrutiny; that is, selection pressures would tend to weed them out in a highly competitive and rigorous “marketplace of ideas” such as the academy. Given the flourishing of PMCT and its attendant communities of practice, political economies, tribalism and social signalling, it is suggested here that it should be approached in a new way: as a significant socio-cultural cluster of misbeliefs worthy of explanation with tools honed via evolutionary science. For example, the prominence of religious-like performativity and self-validating arguments associated with PMCT makes it suitable for study from perspectives such as memetics, evolutionary psychology (EP) and signalling theory, and Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). With these approaches, a hypothesis-driven research agenda could be developed to examine the deeply-rooted cognitive basis and adaptive socio-cultural drivers behind the spread of PMCT. It is proposed that formal and systematic programmes be established to research the phenomenon, and that – just as with the study of religion – we move beyond the now long-established emphasis on intellectual critique and instead establish a broad programme in the Evolutionary Studies of Postmodernism (ESPM).

中文翻译：

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达尔文式的后现代批评理论：或者，坏主意如何在学院中殖民？

本文提出了一种达尔文主义的方法，以研究在过去几十年中在知识界盛行的一系列特殊的误解的持久性和复原力。这些误解，例如后现代批判理论（PMCT）中流行的反理性解释模型，可能会在批判性审查的压力下消失。也就是说，选择压力往往会在诸如学院等竞争激烈且严格的“思想市场”中淘汰它们。考虑到PMCT的兴旺发展及其伴随的实践社区，政治经济，部落主义和社会信号，在这里建议应该以一种新的方式来对待它：作为一个重要的社会文化误解，值得通过以下手段加以完善：进化科学。例如，与PMCT相关的类似宗教的表现力和自我验证论据的突出性使其适合从模因，进化心理学（EP）和信号论，以及道德基础理论（MFT）等方面进行研究。通过这些方法，可以制定假设驱动的研究议程，以检验根植于PMCT背后的根深蒂固的认知基础和适应性社会文化驱动因素。建议建立正式和系统的程序来研究这一现象，并且与对宗教的研究一样，我们超越了长期以来对知识分子批判的重视，而在后现代主义的进化研究中建立了广泛的程序。 （ESPM）。