I'm sorry, I like what Zena tweets and I think I even have one of her books bookmarked for future purchase, but I strongly disagree with this. I've been an autodidact in Philosophy for eight years. The university, for many reasons, isn't viable for me. 1/? https://twitter.com/zenahitz/status/1295347048452161539

I was able to have a presence in Philosophy and to (hopefully) do good in it because of resources like Introductions and Companion texts. These texts often provide me the courage and the footing to go after primary sources. Not only that but there is a larger issue here. 2/?

I've always personally hated the idea of the Ladder in Philosophy i.e. Read pre-Socratics, then Plato, then Aristotle, etc. I feel like the Internet and more pointedly sites like SEP/IEP, as well as the texts Zena denounces, democratize Philosophy and philosophical reading. 3/?

With the yoke of hierarchy overthrown thanks to textual innovations like this and more sweepingly the Internet, Philosophy is restored as a kind of play, an activity unique to the individual. Growing up in a dysfunctional home, Sartre spoke to me more than Plato could have. 4/?

I was able to dive into Sartre's Being and Nothingness and his overarching existentialist philosophy, because of introductory videos and sources I found on the Internet. I was able to engage in philosophic play, because there was a concerted effort to make it accessible. 5/?

Such efforts should not be excised from the idea of our work, but encouraged and augmented. Philosophy is for everyone, and the discontinuation of such projects promotes philosophy's further purification/specialization and making it more disconnected from people and general life.