Inheritance of Intellectual Capital

Sor Juana's determination to preserve and publish her writings—ensuring they would survive her and circulate beyond her lifetime—asserts the property right to transfer intellectual capital to future generations. She understood that her work must become heritable; that knowledge, once created, should not be lost to institutional control or institutional memory alone. This concept extends property rights across generations, protecting the individual's right to determine how their intellectual legacy develops and who inherits their methods and insights. In the libertarian context, intellectual inheritance mirrors physical property inheritance: it protects the creator's authority over what they have produced and ensures that future generations can build on prior achievements without requesting permission from institutional gatekeepers. Sor Juana's publication efforts articulate how freedom requires the right to leave intellectual property to successors. Her work illuminates why libertarian justice must protect the transmission of knowledge across time, preventing institutions from claiming posthumous control over creative production.