IAM Spotlight: The Cultural Complexity Index

Everyone Is Right

How do we measure the depth of human meaning-making across history, traditions, and intellectual paradigms? In this fascinating presentation, Brendan Graham Dempsey introduces his Cultural Complexity Index (CCI) initiative, a pioneering research project that empirically maps how humans structure knowledge, solve problems, and make sense of their world. Utilizing the Lectical Scale, a highly refined framework for measuring hierarchical complexity, the project analyzes sacred and significant texts from different historical periods. Its early findings suggest fascinating correlations between social complexity and the evolution of meaning-making, while also challenging some common assumptions about cognitive development in different historical eras. What do we mean by “culture”? While integral theory typically enacts “culture” as representing our collective interiors (LL), the CCI investigates a broader dimension — the complexity of symbolic information processing as a whole. Brendan’s use of the term aligns closely with Gregg Henriques’ description of “culture” as representing the human noosphere in general, the sphere of knowledge, symbolic representation, and individual sense-making, rather than the Lower-Left (LL) quadrant of Integral Theory, which focuses on relational, intersubjective, and cultural meaning-making. While the two are connected and often isomorphic with each other, they require distinct methodologies to be properly analyzed. This is important because, as Brendan points out, he is not making claims about a given culture’s overall developmental center of gravity, but rather on the cognitive performance of certain individuals within a culture, as measured by the Lectical Scale. Brendan’s presentation covers the theoretical foundations, core methodology, and preliminary results of the study — particularly its examination of texts from forager and archaic societies. In the ensuing discussion, participants explore crucial questions, such as: - The origins of the CCI framework and how it measures individual cognitive complexity, - How cognitive complexity relates to cultural evolution — and why they are not the same thing, - The shift from mythic narratives to rational-scientific models—and how each stage builds upon the last, - The hidden structures of meaning-making and how they shapes everything from politics to personal identity - How the CCI helps dispel myths about cultural development, such as challenging the notion that early societies were incapable of producing later-stage artifacts or ideas, and clarifying the sequential-but-nonlinear nature of human evolution For integral thinkers, the CCI aspires to provide both empirical validation and refinement of existing developmental models. While supporting key developmental insights, it also suggests nuanced updates to conventional correlations between social and cognitive complexity. Most importantly, the findings point toward practical applications — helping to frame new “stories of wholeness” that are adequate to the challenges of our time. This research represents a significant step in bringing empirical rigor to cultural evolution theories while refining and deepening our understanding. By applying careful measurement and analysis, it enhances our understanding of both our developmental past and the challenges of constructing more complex and integrative meaning systems for the future.