Is philosophy useless?

No, but it ain't that practical either

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I am a professional philosopher. That means that I earn a living by doing philosophy professionally. However, unlike with many other professions — doctor, mechanic, oil well operator—many people think that philosophy is useless. On the face of it, not only do philosophers regularly fail to do anything with practical value, but they seemingly cannot even manage to agree on stuff. They disagree on whether we have free will, the nature of right and wrong, whether there is a God, and even how much we can know about the world. No wonder people find philosophers frustrating!

Another way to put the point, though, is to highlight how seemingly little there is for philosophers to do in a crisis. A plumber, police office, and a medical doctor are often useful in the middle of a crisis, but it is less obvious how useful a philosopher would be in a such a situation—though deciding how to allocate scarce resources and how best to think of our moral obligations during a crisis are things that a moral philosopher could be helpful with. The point, though, is that philosophy bakes no bread to paraphrase Ludwig Wittgenstein—it appears that philosophy is not useful in the way that farming or construction skills are incredibly practical.

That being said, there are reasons that cut in the other direction. For one thing, philosophers are good at making conceptual distinctions, clarifying thinking about a given topic, and laying bare bad arguments—stuff philosophers are quite good at. And, moreover, philosophical work has given rise to fields like biology, economics, and computer science. Much of the logic and formal systems that such sciences and technology use was developed by philosophers.

However, there is something else philosophy is good at: scratching that existential itch. Many of us have wondered, rightly, about questions like the meaning of life, the nature of right and wrong, whether we are free with autonomy or merely the product of physical laws, whether there is a God and an afterlife. So, while philosophy may not be practically useful—most of the time, anyway—it is something that lends a voice to the spiritual, moral, and existential longings, anxiety, curiosity that comes with being human. So, though it doesn’t fill any bellies, it may, perhaps, fill the soul.