The principle that understanding law, history, and justice is prerequisite for claiming and defending one's rights, making education a matter of fairness itself.
Sor Juana argued that ignorance is weaponized against the powerless, and that true fairness requires people to understand the systems affecting their lives. She saw education not as a luxury but as the foundation upon which all other rights rest. A person who cannot read law cannot defend themselves in court; someone without historical knowledge cannot recognize when injustice repeats. Sor Juana's vast learning enabled her to argue for her own freedom in terms authorities could not dismiss. In Periagoge, this concept means recognizing that fairness has an educational prerequisite. When civilization denies groups access to knowledge, it simultaneously denies them effective access to justice. This framework applies universally: every society serious about fairness has eventually invested in public education and literacy. Today it illuminates why educational gaps correlate with inequality, why information access determines power, and why genuine fairness requires not just laws but the knowledge to understand and invoke them.
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