My journey into it started as I was getting out of religion. Listening to debates about religion had several general philosophy references, so I read about those topics. I had some conversations with a buddy claiming “that’s Marxist, that’s Socialist” whatevers, and I wanted to learn what those things actually meant and why they scared so many people etc. Basically me not meshing with the ideological beliefs of my peers sent me down some deep rabbit holes lol.

Depression and Marxism

I never outgrew the incessantly asking questions childhood phase; I only eventually mostly internalized it.

C.S. Lewis, specifically The Screwtape Letters. I had been raised very conservative Catholic, and this book was my introduction to moral philosophy, as odd as that may sound given the overtly religious nature of it. The idea that morality has nuance, that an action can be wrong and still not damning, or ‘virtuous’ and still evil, was a new idea to me in my early teens.

While it would take me several more years to really start learning more definite philosophical concepts, that book was the first one that actually challenged me to ask myself why I believed the things I did, and made the case that blind, unchallenged faith was not faith at all. I started paying more attention to the things I had previously accepted at face value, and that examination would lead to me leaving the church and Christianity entirely later on. I still have faith of a sort, but it is more a faith in humanity and an undying and unifying spirit of community than a religion.

Now I have read quite a bit more in terms of philosophy, though not as much as I would like. All thanks to one book about demons trying to send a man to hell.