Knowledge as Power Over and Power With

Sor Juana distinguished between knowledge that serves domination and knowledge that serves understanding and justice. Humans have accumulated vast knowledge of animal anatomy, genetics, and behavior—yet this knowledge has primarily fueled exploitation in agriculture, research, and industry. We know how to manipulate animals precisely because we have studied them, but often not to serve their flourishing. Sor Juana's intellectual project aimed at truth that liberates rather than controls. Applied to animal ethics, this means redirecting knowledge from power-over toward power-with: understanding animals not to better exploit them but to better coexist with them. Ethologists studying animal cognition, sanctuaries learning animal preferences, conservation efforts respecting ecological relationships—these represent knowledge in service of mutual recognition. The shift requires intellectual humility: acknowledging that understanding animal needs and experiences serves their autonomy, not our mastery. Knowledge becomes ethical when it asks how to honor what we learn rather than how to leverage it.