practicality of philosophy today

[Cavernio]

Originally Posted by Choofers

dunno science taught me to not take things at face value

Are you sure it was science that taught you that?

IMO people seem to credit science with anything and everything these days while it seems they know very little science about what they're crediting, calling general knowledge science, assuming that unless that knowledge is founded in something very specifically unscientific (like religion), it therefore must be founded in science. People seem also to use the term scientific when they mean logical. Science is logical yes, but not necessarily the opposite.
Or maybe its just me giving the term science a much smaller definition than what most people give it. If that's the case then I think most people just don't 'get' the full idea of science and how rigorous it needs to be, because it is most unscientific to call something not rooted firmly in science, science.

As far as the usefulness of philosophy, the ability to interpret and understand scientific results is necessarily bound in philosophy. The understanding of how our interpretation of data influences what we deem as the truth from science is incredibly important.

Overall though, I do agree with the OP that philosophy has branched or evolved into more specific areas (sciences, social sciences), and that those specific fields are what have become more useful and worthy of further study. (It's why, personally, I can't believe in non-deity religions that are founded in philosophy...we just know too much for me to be content with pondering how I am the negative that is surrounded by positive and other such ideas.) But it's a pretty tall order to say that philosophy has become useless however; in order for that to be the case we'd have to have philosophized so much that we understand all the recesses of our minds fully.

[Reincarnate]

Science is ultimately a framework that appeals to empiricism/reason. You can have things that aren't "scientific" that still fall within the realm of empirical analysis.

My own personal view is that if your philosophical framework finds itself straying too far from such areas, you're going to be appealing to an inferior model.