Intellectual Property as Self-Ownership

Sor Juana's defense of her own intellectual work—despite institutional pressure to renounce study—establishes intellectual property as inseparable from personal autonomy. She argued that the mind belongs to the individual, not to church or state doctrine. In libertarian justice, this concept protects creators' ownership rights over their ideas, writing, and inventions as legitimate property derived from self-ownership. Sor Juana's legacy illuminates why intellectual freedom and property rights are foundational: without ownership of one's thoughts and creations, genuine freedom becomes impossible. Applied today, this framework challenges restrictions on knowledge creation and demands recognition of creators' absolute claims to their intellectual output, rejecting appropriation by institutions or collective authorities.