The Refusal of False Neutrality in Science

Sor Juana's critics claimed to defend universal truth while protecting patriarchal power; they masked ideology as objectivity. Similarly, claims of scientific neutrality in climate discourse often serve particular interests. Fossil fuel companies funded 'skeptical' climate research while insisting their position was rationally neutral. Wealthy nations present carbon markets and technological solutions as universal fixes while avoiding redistribution or structural change. The refusal of false neutrality means acknowledging that all knowledge production reflects perspective and power. Climate science itself emerged from colonial projects of mapping and controlling nature. Scientists, like Sor Juana, are embedded in social systems that shape what questions get asked, what counts as evidence, and whose suffering matters. Climate justice requires transparency about these positions rather than claiming disinterested objectivity. It means valuing indigenous science that explicitly centers community wellbeing, feminist science that acknowledges the researcher's situation, and activist science that openly declares commitment to justice. Sor Juana's intellectual honesty involved acknowledging her position, her uncertainties, her limitations. Climate responsibility demands the same: rejecting false neutrality and arguing openly for whose interests climate solutions should serve.