Synopsis
In The DIM Hypothesis, Leonard Peikoff advances the hypothesis that Western cultures can be understood according to the general cognitive method that pervades them, and that this understanding can allow for predictions of where a culture is headed in the future.
Peikoff defines three "pure" cognitive methods according to the stance taken towards integration, the process of interrelating knowledge and connecting it to reality, and the main philosopher proponent of each method (these brief descriptions are mine; see the book for better explanations):
Disintegration (D) - a cognitive commitment against the interrelation of knowledge (Immanual Kant)
Integration (I) - a cognitive method of interrelating knowledge and connecting it to reality (Aristotle)
Misintegration (M) - a cognitive method of interrelating knowledge but commitment against connecting it to reality (Plato)
He further defines two "mixed" approaches: D1, combining elements of D and I and exemplified in the work of August Comte, and M1, combining elements of M and I and exemplified in the work of Rene DesCartes.
In order to validate the hypothesis, Peikoff undertakes an impressive analysis of these five cognitive methods in four cultural areas (literature, physics, education, and politics) across all of the main periods in Western history. He then goes on to use what he has learned from this approach to make predictions for the future culture of the United States.
Impressions
I have long been an admirer of Dr. Peikoff's work and I eagerly awaited the publication of The DIM Hypothesis. I can say now, having finished it, that it was entirely worth the wait. I was initially daunted by the new nomenclature (e.g., I, M1, M2, D1, D2) introduced into the book, but the first part of the book presents a very clear explanation and it became clear early in Part 2 (when he begins his cultural analysis) that the text would become unwieldy without a system of shorthand for the various cognitive "modes" being analyzed. It doesn't take long to become familiar and comfortable with the different modes, and they have made a very welcome addition to my own thinking about history and culture.
I was especially impressed with the intellectual integrity that is clearly shown through the work. It would have been easy to advance a lofty hypothesis and then "cherry-pick" cultural evidence to support it. Peikoff, however, assiduously confines himself to analysis of the most obviously culture-defining artifacts. In literature, for example, he isolates 1 or more epochal works which were widely read, celebrated, taught, and imitated in each of the relevant periods, e.g., the Iliad in Ancient Greece, the Aeneid in Rome, the Divine Comedy in the Middle Ages, Ulysses in the modern period. If in a cultural area he finds no evidence for one of his modes, he freely admits of it (see his discussion of the absence of the "I mode" in the history of education).
The best section of the book, in my opinion, was on the modern politics of egalitarianism, which Peikoff lays open with ruthless clarity.
Dr. Peikoff leaves it to the reader to decide whether the hypothesis is proven. I frankly don't think that I have the historical knowledge to be able independently to verify some of what he has written, but everything he says does conform with what knowledge I have. As such, I found his thesis to be highly convincing. On first reading, I was able to find only one small error in the text [p. 209, saying that Constantine made Christianity Rome's official religion in 315, which, from what I can find, happened later under Emperor Theodosius I] which does not redound in any way to the validity of the hypothesis and the like of which was probably inevitable given the incredible scope of the the book.
Who Should Read It
Other reviewers have indicated that a prior knowledge of Objectivism, the philosophy of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand of whom Dr. Peikoff was a long-time student, is a prerequisite for reading The DIM Hypothesis. I respectfully disagree. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone who is interested in ideas, and particularly to those who are interested in the subjects of his cultural analysis--literature, physics, education, and politics. I think the book is clear enough to be well understood by any educated person, who can, by all means, later seek out more information on Objectivism if he want to enhance his understanding.
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The three modes: Integration, misintegration, and disintegration.
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