Thesis Chapters by Mona Hakim
The question of the value of knowledge, with roots as far as Greeks, has seen a recent rejuvenati... more The question of the value of knowledge, with roots as far as Greeks, has seen a recent rejuvenation in relevance within epistemology. Answering the question of why we value knowledge so much has proven problematic. So problematic, in fact, that some philosophers, such as Jonathan Kvanvig (2003) and Duncan Pritchard (2010) have claimed that knowledge should be replaced by understanding as the legitimate goal of inquiry. This dissertation seeks to show the need to focus more deeply on understanding; its aim is to present understanding - and not knowledge - as the proper goal of inquiry. It will do this through discussing the value problems and where they call for a focus on understanding, as well as considering one theory of knowledge. Then, finally, it will consider why we value understanding more than knowledge and how we can account for its final value more intuitively and less problematically than we can account for the apparent final value of knowledge.
Drafts by Mona Hakim
The power of a dominant narrative on the individual is easily overlooked in discussions of politi... more The power of a dominant narrative on the individual is easily overlooked in discussions of political agency; too quickly we forget that in order for there to be political agency, there must first be an agent. Ultimately, an agent is an individual and this in virtue of being an individual she must somehow be constituted as one. This is a study of the forces that enable the individual to become an individual of her own making by taking into consideration the sociocultural forces that facilitate this. This paper is predominantly interested in the implications of hiphop music as a discursively produced and productive counterculture that constitutes and simultaneously subjugates individuals. It presents hiphop music as a politics of resistance in its provision of counternarratives to the dominant discourse. It argues that hiphop music is a counterculture with a contextually dependent social ontological status. As a counterculture, it argues that hiphop music provides a mode of expression to its members but also makes claims on them. In doing so it imposes a structure of doubledomination on them. The purpose of this paper is to bring to the fore the potential of countercultures or subcultures to subjugate those individuals that they seek to emancipate or represent. Its conclusion is constructive in that it insists on the individual's selfdeterminable responsibility in creating her own character as an individual capable of authentic political activism in spite of subjugating social forces. In this sense it is prepolitical philosophy that acknowledges the importance of the creation of the individual as preceding all other forms of political activism. S1762303 Mona Hakim Introduction This paper argues that hiphop music is a nonviolent politics of resistance. It acknowledges hiphop music as an important artistic form of expression that gives voice to a voiceless echelon of society typically rendered powerless through poverty and ghettoisation. Conscious hiphop music critiques the dominant and social structures that admit social disadvantage, through rap. Through resisting against those dominant forces within society's framework, hiphop continually emerges as a counterculture to the dominant culture. As a counterculture hiphop affords itself claims against the individual in the way that a dominant culture does. Therefore, questions of subjugation of the individual arise with regard to members of hiphop culture. I argue that hiphop's social ontological status is dependent upon sociodominant structures. In this case, is a member of hiphop music counterculture's social ontological status dependent on hiphop music? If so, where does the dominant culture's domination end, and hiphop music's domination begin? Part I argues that hiphop is a politics of resistance by providing a counternarrative to the dominant narrative. Part II considers how hiphop music moves from a counternarrative to a counterculture. Part III examines the implications on the individual of hiphop's countercultural nature. It highlights the doubledomination that its status as a counterculture imposes on subjects of hiphop music culture. The aim of this paper is to highlight the subject of hiphop music counterculture is the subject of doubledomination, in virtue of being a subject of a subculture. Nevertheless, this paper acknowledges that this phenomenon is not unique to hiphop music; this is merely one example of the effects of countercultural membership on the individual. The conclusion of this paper is that doubledominant power structures are not diagnostic to members of hiphop music counterculture; they pervade the structure of all cultures within cultures. I argue that responsibility for one's identity as a subject, and more importantly, as an agent capable of authentic political activism can only lie in the hands of the individual, given the pervasive nature of dominating structural power relations. I do not provide any suggestions on how the individual may desubjugate herself though I acknowledge that this may be an important topic of discussion.
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Thesis Chapters by Mona Hakim
Drafts by Mona Hakim