Critical Examination of Development and Progress

Sor Juana lived in a colonial context and understood how 'civilization' and 'progress' narratives justified domination and extraction. This critical perspective proves essential now, as climate crisis reveals that industrial capitalism's model of endless growth contradicts planetary reality. What does 'development' mean when it destroys the water, soil, and air that all development depends on? The Global North built wealth through centuries of resource extraction; now demanding the Global South follow identical paths is both unjust and ecologically impossible. Sor Juana would advocate for rigorous questioning: Progress toward what? For whom? At what cost? Development models that increase material consumption per capita while driving climate catastrophe are not genuine progress—they are paths toward collective ruin. Justice requires imagining alternative models: development as expansion of human capability and dignity within ecological limits, as knowledge and cultural flourishing rather than material accumulation, as equitable distribution rather than concentrated wealth. This critical examination challenges the foundational assumptions of modern capitalism itself, asking whether a finite planet can sustain infinite growth narratives.