Justice as Relational Accountability

Sor Juana's ethics emphasized human relationship and mutual responsibility rather than abstract principle. She wrote of friendship, intellectual communion, and the bonds between people. This relational approach transforms animal ethics profoundly. We exist in relationships with animals—whether through direct companionship, ecological participation, or systems of use. These relationships create accountability. A farmer has relational obligations to animals in their care. A consumer participates in systems of animal labor and death. An urban dweller depends on ecosystems where animals live. Justice becomes not about following universal rules but about recognizing these relationships and responding with integrity. This framework rejects cold calculation in favor of attending to particular animals in specific contexts. A horse in your stable is not an abstract moral unit but a being whose flourishing you have made partly your responsibility. Sor Juana's emphasis on cultivating virtues—compassion, humility, justice—within actual relationships guides us toward relational accountability with animals. Ethics becomes about who we are in relationship with others, human and otherwise.