Justice as Foundational to Personal Ethics

Sor Juana's ethics were inseparable from her awareness of injustice—the denial of women's education, the exploitation of indigenous peoples, the constraints of hierarchical authority. She understood that personal virtue incomplete without working toward justice. This concept resists the temptation to develop individual integrity while ignoring structural injustice. In contemporary practice, it means examining not only your personal conduct but also the systems you benefit from and perpetuate. Personal ethics guided by Sor Juana's vision includes asking: How do my choices support or resist unjust structures? What privilege am I working from? How might I use my capacities for broader justice? This prevents integrity from becoming a private virtue that ignores complicity in public harm.