Consent as the Foundation of Authority

Sor Juana's intellectual rebellion implicitly rejected the notion that ecclesiastical and patriarchal authority needed no consent to be legitimate. Her famous 'Reply to Sor Filotea' defends her right to obey conscience over command, establishing a principle: authority without consent is mere force. For libertarian justice, this means property rights and freedom depend on voluntary association, not inherited duty or prescribed relationship. Sor Juana's ultimate forced recantation and silence—demanded by church authority—illustrates the violence done when consent is absent. She could not own her own work, her own study, her own voice because authorities claimed dominion without her agreement. This concept argues that legitimate social order requires explicit consent from those bound by it; anything less is confiscation of autonomy. Applied rigorously, it demands voluntary rather than coercive institutions throughout social life.