Epistemic Justice and Intellectual Legitimacy

Sor Juana's works were often attributed to male collaborators, suppressed, or dismissed as derivative. This reflects an epistemic injustice: her status as a legitimate knower and intellectual producer was denied. Libertarian justice requires not just freedom from censorship but recognition of intellectual legitimacy. Sor Juana advocated for women's capacity for rigorous thought and demanded that their contributions be credited and valued. This principle connects property and identity: if I own my intellectual work, I deserve recognition as its legitimate author and thinker. Epistemic injustice violates this ownership—it appropriates credit, denies agency, and positions the thinker as derivative or incompetent. Sor Juana's demand for legitimacy was thus a demand for property rights and justice: her ideas should be attributed to her, engaged with as serious contributions, and valued on merit. This concept broadens libertarian justice to include the social recognition necessary for intellectual property rights to be meaningful. Without epistemic legitimacy, formal ownership claims remain hollow.