Recognition that animals possess forms of intelligence and awareness deserving moral consideration, extending Sor Juana's defense of women's intellectual capacity to non-human creatures.
Sor Juana famously argued that intellectual capacity should not determine human worth or rights—a radical position in her time. Applied to animal ethics, this concept challenges our assumption that rationality as humans define it is the only basis for moral consideration. Animals demonstrate problem-solving, emotional complexity, social bonds, and learning abilities that constitute genuine intelligence. By recognizing diverse forms of intellect beyond human language and abstraction, we honor the cognitive lives of animals and their intrinsic value. This framework dismantles hierarchical thinking that places humans at an apex of moral consideration, instead embracing a pluralistic view where different intelligences merit different protections. Sor Juana's insistence on examining our prejudices directly applies here—we must question whether our dismissal of animal minds reflects objective truth or inherited bias.
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