Freedom of Conscience as Economic Right

Sor Juana's defense of women's right to study science, philosophy, and theology was fundamentally a claim about economic freedom—the right to direct one's labor and intellect without coercion. She faced pressure to abandon her library and intellectual pursuits under vows of obedience. Libertarian justice depends on protecting conscience as an economic right: the freedom to allocate your mind, time, and resources according to your own values. Sor Juana's tradition argues that censorship, forced ignorance, and restrictions on women's education are violations of property rights in one's own faculties. When society or the Church denies individuals the economic freedom to pursue knowledge, it commits a taking of their labor and potential. This concept unites intellectual liberty with economic rights, opposing both religious and state coercion.