The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West Are Going Out

Posted by EgoPriest 5 years, 6 months ago to Books
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Integration is the process by which people interrelate concrete data to make a connected whole, data such as individual facts, values, laws, the events in a novel, the provisions of the Constitution and so on. In all these contexts and more, The DIM Hypothesis identifies three different methods of integration and their consequences for the West’s past – and for America’s future.

One type of mindset works to integrate data by rational means (which Peikoff calls “Integration,” or for short “I”). Another seeks to integrate by non-rational means (“Misintegration,” or “M”). A third opposes integration of any kind (“Disintegration,” or “D”). Thus the acronym DIM. (One example of I is science; of M, religion; of D, non objective art.)

The purpose of the book is to demonstrate the role of these three methods in shaping Western culture and history, and their implications for America’s future.

In Part I, which deals with epistemology, Peikoff explains what integration is, why it is the most crucial aspect of a thought process, why there are only three possible interpretations of it, and which philosopher is the source of each.

In Part II, which deals with culture, the DIM approach is applied to four different and culturally representative fields. The analysis shows that, within the modern era, each of the main trends within these fields is an expression and consequence of the DIM category dominant at the time. The fields are literature, physics, education, and politics.

In Parts III and IV, which deal with history and prediction, the book uses the DIM approach to analyze the progression of Western cultures from Greece, Rome, and the medievals to the present.

By surveying the status of the four fields in each culture, Peikoff is able to identify each society’s ruling method of integration; he can thus discover the logic of these societies’ succession across the centuries. Extrapolating from the historical pattern he has identified, Peikoff concludes by predicting, as he sees it, the most likely future in the twenty-first century of the United States.
SOURCE URL: http://www.peikoff.com/books/the-dim-hypothesis/


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  • Posted by 5 years, 6 months ago
    My motive in posting this was to consider a new angle on a new paradigm: the vertical angle if you will.

    DIM is about the culture that takes root from a philosophy and its mode of integration. But what I mean by vertically is in the sense that, in terms of integration, you the individual are the primary one in the many.

    But living in a world that is of another mode than you (the individual) creates an unavoidable conflict that results in a life "slipping out of gear."

    So it prevents you from being the ideal you. My own acronym for dealing with that is MRI. You can think of it as the machine that gives you a full picture of what is going on, or the healthy result (Mr. I), but it actually stands for the praxis of "Memorizing, Reciting for the purpose of fully Inducing the philosophic principles outlined in John Galt's Radio Address on November, 22nd).

    Every November 22nd assigns each trainee the opportunity of seeing how far they can dramatically recite America's Second Declaration of Independence (ASDI).

    As of last November 22nd, I'm up to [GS-106], join me.
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