Angela. Thank you for a very interesting thread. My journey with #philosophy has been a little different. I was attracted to it as a subject and applied to do it as a minor at university without any real understanding of what it would entail. I enjoyed it so much I converted to a major in my second year.

After I left uni I did skilled manual work but continued to read philosophy. Over time I moved into building design and began to find practical applications for it.

@angelacardoso

These were in the application of analytic reasoning to problem solving and later in developing databases to manage, analyse and communicate complex datasets.

However at the same time my interest in P wained and instead I turned to history and to a lesser extent sociology as I became more interested in how we got to be where we are. I ended up doing an MA in modern history and started a PhD which I had to give up through ill-health.

But P remains an interest to this day.

@angelacardoso

I'd be interested to know your reasons for talking a historical/sociological turn? For me it was reading a biography of Samuel Pepys and realising that at the time of writing his diary he had a pretty semi-detached relationship with religion. Given that he had just lived through a murderous religious war. My philosophical interests were focused on ontology and epistemology, and the issue of the reality of the supernatural was a key part of that.

@angelacardoso

It dawned on me that I knew nothing about the history of irreligion, and therefore I was missing a key bit of self knowledge. I was raised atheist. So I looked for a book that would at least describe the transition from a religion dominated culture to the more heterogenous society we live in now. I couldn't find that book. So started looking into it as a hobby.

I have chronic fatigue syndrome which got worse and though I enjoyed the PhD I couldn't keep up that level of ...

@angelacardoso