The Right to Solitude and Study

Sor Juana's legendary retreat into study—her request to live in the convent library—reveals solitude not as isolation but as a property claim: the right to one's own time and mental space. She fought institutional pressure to abandon scholarship for prayer and service, asserting that contemplation itself was labor deserving protection. In Libertarian justice, this principle extends beyond scholars: everyone possesses the right to claim portions of their own life for thought, learning, and self-directed development. This is not mere preference but a fundamental liberty—the ability to say no to others' demands on one's attention and energy. Sor Juana's struggle shows how societies that deny this right (especially to women and minorities) enforce a kind of intellectual servitude. Protecting solitude and study means recognizing that your time is your property, and no institution—religious, political, or commercial—can legitimately conscript it without consent.