Epistemic Justice and Knowledge Ownership

Sor Juana inhabited a world that denied women epistemic credibility: her gender, her race, her status all conspired to delegitimize her claims to knowledge. Yet she asserted her right to think, to know, to interpret—and crucially, to be heard. Epistemic justice, in her framework, means recognizing individuals as legitimate knowers with property rights over their own understanding. In libertarian terms, this is freedom from epistemic theft: the injustice of having your interpretations appropriated, your voice silenced, or your capacity to know denied. Sor Juana's defiant scholarship—her theological arguments, her scientific curiosity—stakes a claim: justice requires that we acknowledge people's right to their own knowledge production and intellectual authority.