The recognition that property rights and freedom are inseparable from identity and self-determination, making dispossession an attack on personhood itself.
For Sor Juana, her intellectual work was not separate from who she was—it was central to her identity. To deny her the right to study, write, and publish was to deny her selfhood. This reveals a fundamental principle: property and freedom are not abstract economic concepts but are bound up with identity and the ability to become oneself. When someone is prevented from owning their labor, controlling their ideas, or benefiting from their work, they are not merely economically harmed—they are prevented from full selfhood and self-determination. Libertarian justice must recognize this identity-property nexus: that people have the right to property because it is necessary for developing and expressing who they are. Sor Juana's fierce commitment to intellectual work was a commitment to being fully herself. Her tradition insists that property rights matter not just for material wellbeing but for identity, dignity, and the freedom to become who you are capable of being. Dispossession is a form of dehumanization; property rights are prerequisites for full personhood.
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