Moral Consideration Beyond Sentience

While sentience—capacity to feel and suffer—provides the strongest foundation for animal rights, Sor Juana's intellectual tradition suggests broader grounds for moral consideration. She lived in a natural world and recognized value in creation itself. Modern animal ethics sometimes limits moral consideration to sentient creatures, but this may be insufficient. Ecosystems and species have intrinsic worth; animals have relationships, roles in communities, and unique existences deserving respect. A ecosystem-centered approach inspired by Sor Juana's holistic thinking acknowledges that our moral obligations extend beyond minimizing suffering to include preserving the integrity of natural systems and respecting the existence of beings in their particularity. This means protecting habitats not only because animals there can suffer, but because the forest itself, the interconnections between species, and the continuity of evolutionary lineages possess value. Such an approach honors both individual animals and the larger ecological wholes they inhabit, preventing ethics from becoming purely individualistic.