Is philosophy a waste of time?

For goodness sake, the title is obviously supposed to read 'Is philosophy a waste of time?'

Anyway . . .

What do you think of people who say things like the following:

'Philosophy is waste of time.'

'It's just people sitting on their arse all day having pointless discussions.'

'You're never going to find the answers, so there's no point in asking the questions.'

'Philosophy is for people who want to talk about the questions that science will find the answers to; they just don't have what it takes to pursue science directly.'

'Philosophy will never get you a job - it's a waste of three years.'

What do you think of people who say these things? I've heard it around lately and, personally, I think it shows a level of ignorance which I simply didn't expect to find at university.

peoples priorities are different, im sure the people that slag off philosophy are the kinds of people who worship maths/science

Everything is a waste of time.....

Where do most scientists get their 'knowledge' from? From experiments, past experiences, laws that up to this point in time have always held. Now, how on earth can they be so absolutely, dogmatically certain that these laws will continue to hold true? Just because something happened 100 times in the past doesn't necessarily mean it will happen again.

I'm not saying that because of this all scientific pursuit should be abandoned, because obviously the majority of the time scientific laws DO continue to hold true. However, it does shock me a bit that most people who study science haven't even thought to consider this question, or if they have they've dismissed it.

It might be one of those problems that can never have a completely satisfactory answer, but at least Philosophy's having a go rather than just ignoring it. You can still get something from a question without finding a concrete answer, a fact which I think is lost on a lot of mathematicians in particular.

In the case of physics and mathematics philosophical concerns actually DIRECTLY dictate the way forward for the discipline.

For example, if we have philosophical concerns (which some philosophers do) over the nature of the law of excluded middle then we need to develop a whole new intuisitionist logic and a new mathematics based on this logic.

In physics and mathematics this is often known as 'philosophy first' Indeed, some physical/mathematical theories are entirely constructed in ways to avoid metaphysical problems which philosophers raise. A good example of this would be the Hilbert Programme.

Some of the best philosophers have often been mathematicians (Wittgenstein) and some of the best mathematicians often philosophers (Frege)

Well they have a point. Philosophy isn't a vocationally oriented degree, and because of it the direct uses of the study are quite limited. There aren't any graduate training schemes for philosophy, after all. I wouldn't really call them ignorant, but I would disagree about the characterization of philosophy as worthless.

It's a great liberal education. Such a grasp of logic and conceptual thinking, the ability to develop an argument and grasp complex and abstract ideas and debate and discuss them articulately is, rightly so I believe, a highly prized achievements. I think very highly of philosophers and philosophy students, it's something I wish I had a better head for.

Yeah, stop thinking and start living, thats the only philosophy you need.

In the case of physics and mathematics philosophical concerns actually DIRECTLY dictate the way forward for the discipline.

For example, if we have philosophical concerns (which some philosophers do) over the nature of the law of excluded middle then we need to develop a whole new intuisitionist logic and a new mathematics based on this logic.

In physics and mathematics this is often known as 'philosophy first' Indeed, some physical/mathematical theories are entirely constructed in ways to avoid metaphysical problems which philosophers raise. A good example of this would be the Hilbert Programme.

Some of the best philosophers have often been mathematicians (Wittgenstein) and some of the best mathematicians often philosophers (Frege)