Knowledge as Claim to Rights

Sor Juana's entire career made an implicit argument: women's intellectual capacity meant they deserved access to education, theological discourse, and scholarly authority. She did not argue for rights based on sentiment or sentiment alone but on demonstrated reason and learning. This concept connects epistemology—questions about what counts as knowledge—to justice. In civil disobedience, this framework appears when disenfranchised groups claim that their knowledge and competence establish standing. Indigenous peoples asserting that their ecological knowledge must inform environmental policy, workers demanding voice in workplace decisions based on their expertise, communities insisting that their lived experience constitutes valid knowledge about systemic injustice—all participate in this tradition. The Sophos perspective insists that access to knowledge is both cause and effect of justice. Sor Juana showed that the struggle for recognition often requires first claiming intellectual capacity, then demanding that such capacity be honored. Civil disobedience becomes the vehicle for asserting: we know, therefore we must be heard.