A Darwinian Approach to Postmodern Critical Theory: Or, How Did Bad Ideas Colonise the Academy?

Davison, A

A Darwinian Approach to Postmodern Critical Theory: Or, How Did Bad Ideas Colonise the Academy?

Davison, A

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Publisher:: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Society, 2020
Issue Date:: 2020-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Davison, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3478-0231
dc.date.accessioned	2020-08-21T10:23:38Z
dc.date.available	2021-01-01T18:08:31Z
dc.date.issued	2020-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Society, 2020
dc.identifier.issn	0147-2011
dc.identifier.issn	1936-4725
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/142288
dc.description.abstract	© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. 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).
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
dc.relation.ispartof	Society
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1007/s12115-020-00505-3
dc.rights	This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [insert journal title]. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12115-020-00505-3]”
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Society. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12115-020-00505-3.	en_US
dc.subject	1608 Sociology
dc.subject.classification	General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
dc.title	A Darwinian Approach to Postmodern Critical Theory: Or, How Did Bad Ideas Colonise the Academy?
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	1608 Sociology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2020-08-21T10:23:35Z
pubs.publication-status	Published

Abstract:

© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. 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).

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/142288