Economic Autonomy Through Knowledge

Sor Juana's decision to enter the convent was partly strategic: it offered her a rare path to economic security and intellectual freedom unavailable to most women of her time. Her learning made her valuable—her poetry, her knowledge, her wit drew patronage and protection. She understood that intellectual property translates into material security and bargaining power. In libertarian justice, knowledge is a crucial means to economic independence. When people are educated, when they develop marketable skills and intellectual capabilities, they gain leverage to negotiate freely, to refuse unjust arrangements, to sustain themselves without coercion. Sor Juana's example shows how the freedom to learn, to develop one's capacities, and to profit from one's knowledge becomes inseparable from economic freedom and property rights. Knowledge is power not in a dominating sense, but in the libertarian sense: the capacity to sustain yourself and negotiate on equal terms.