An Initial Sketch of Sor Juana’s Virtue Epistemology

This article will argue that Sor Juana develops a revisionary virtue epistemology in her Reply to Sor Filotea in order to counter the oppressive dogmas of her time. Sor Juana’s epistemological reorganization of Catholic Scholasticism helps her epistemically ground and morally justify her lifelong passion for learning. Sor Juana’s virtue responsibilist epistemology posits that properly oriented humility actually motivates studying, even for women; subtly reworks the scope of the supposed vice of curiositas so as to endorse curiosity about the created world as a virtue; and underscores the equal importance of moral and intellectual virtues for persons of any gender. Furthermore, Sor Juana’s system emphasizes grounds for epistemic justification that are accessible third-personally to allow her to move beyond the discriminatory debate about women’s intellectual capacities and demonstrate her epistemic agency through externally observable markers.