Every philosopher I’ve found of actual personal interest in the modern day has crossed it with science or engineering of some sort (cognitive psychology, AI, etc). If you want to do philiosophy because you have an actual problem to solve, you’ll do something of interest and have a usefulness test to keep you on track.
“The degeneration of philosophical schools in its turn is the consequence of the mistaken belief that one can philosophize without having been compelled to philosophize by problems outside philosophy... Genuine philosophical problems are always rooted outside philosophy & they die if these roots decay... These roots are easily forgotten by philosophers who ‘study’ philosophy instead of being forced into philosophy by the pressure of nonphilosophical problems.”
Every philosopher I’ve found of actual personal interest in the modern day has crossed it with science or engineering of some sort (cognitive psychology, AI, etc). If you want to do philiosophy because you have an actual problem to solve, you’ll do something of interest and have a usefulness test to keep you on track.
--Karl Popper, Conjectures & Refutations, (pages 95-97)