Justice as Universal Inclusion

Sor Juana challenged the injustice of exclusion from intellectual and civic life. Her fight for women's right to learn and participate mirrors the exclusion of animals from moral consideration in contemporary society. Justice, as Sor Juana understood it, requires questioning who is left out and why. Extending this logic to animals means recognizing that exclusion from moral standing is itself an act of injustice requiring philosophical justification. Her tradition insists that systems denying rights and consideration based on arbitrary characteristics—whether gender or species—perpetuate harm. Universal justice demands we examine whether our treatment of animals reflects deliberate moral reasoning or merely inherited prejudice. By applying Sor Juana's inclusive vision of justice, we build frameworks that grant animals standing in our moral systems, not as objects of charity but as beings entitled to consideration of their interests and autonomy.