The Right to Learn Without Permission

Sor Juana's determination to educate herself—reading from her family library, mastering languages, studying theology and science without formal university access—embodies the natural right to learn. In libertarian justice, this means no authority can legitimately monopolize knowledge or require permission for intellectual inquiry. Educational freedom is not granted by institutions; it precedes them. Sor Juana's struggle against ecclesiastical censorship and gender-based exclusion from formal education demonstrates how power structures weaponize ignorance to maintain control. The right to learn protects individuals from paternalistic restrictions that claim to protect them but actually preserve hierarchy. Applied to property and freedom, this principle means individuals own their capacity to acquire knowledge and should face no coercive barriers to self-education, whether through censorship, exclusion, or forced indoctrination in state-approved curricula.