Justice as Epistemic Recognition

Sor Juana's conception of justice centered on recognition: that she existed as an intellectual subject, that her thoughts mattered, that her voice deserved hearing. She wasn't asking permission to think—she was claiming that thinking was her right as a human being. Epistemic justice means being recognized as capable of knowledge production and as worthy of being listened to. Postcolonial decolonization, following Sor Juana, understands that a primary injustice of colonialism was the denial of colonized peoples' epistemic authority—the insistence that we couldn't think, couldn't know, couldn't create legitimate knowledge. Justice therefore requires more than material restitution; it requires recognition of our capacity to know and interpret reality. This means creating spaces where colonized peoples' knowledge systems are centered, where our interpretations of history and reality are treated as authoritative, where our intellectual contributions are credited and valued. It means rejecting the 'grateful victim' posture that waits for dominant culture to validate our knowledge. Instead, it means asserting: our ways of knowing are already valid, our interpretations already matter, whether or not the colonizer recognizes this. Justice is claiming epistemic authority.