The Right to Self-Directed Inquiry

Sor Juana's fundamental claim was the right to ask questions—theological, scientific, philosophical—and to follow evidence and reason wherever they led. She resisted the notion that her inquiry should be circumscribed by gender, ecclesiastical authority, or social role. This concept establishes self-directed inquiry as a property right: you own your own mind and its processes. For libertarian justice, it means no institution may seize control over what questions you ask or what methods you use to seek truth. It protects against intellectual conscription and thought monopoly. Sor Juana's defense of her right to study mathematics, to write plays, to engage in scriptural analysis, without permission or apology, models how libertarian justice must guarantee freedom of intellectual pursuit as foundational to all other freedoms.