First of all in academia you will often find subjects that may very well prove to be irrelevant to practical activities, not just in Philosophy, but also in Mat

First of all in academia you will often find subjects that may very well prove to be irrelevant to practical activities, not just in Philosophy, but also in Mathematics, Physics or Political Science. However, I do think that a great deal of these theoretical questions can be of great help also for practical activities. Philosophy of Science deals with, among other things, questions such as "is there a particular method with which we can find the truth or is it just anything goes? Is there even truth, and if so, what constitutes truth?" If you are an academic and you are doing research I would say this is a fairly relevant question since the theoretical paradigm you follow directly influences the way you are going to conduct research. Another example could be AI, where frequently philosophers work together with scientists. IBM or Google are working on remodelling the human brain, but this task is highly difficult since intelligence is not just based on computational power (which explains why advances in technology do not directly correlate with advances in AI), but there are fundamental differences. So philosophers, together with neuroscientists, try to find an understanding of what constitutes the human consciousness, which is a very wide but fascinating field. Last but not least Ethics also constitutes an important subject in philosophy that has direct influences on the way we deal with future advances in technology and there are too many examples to think of. Philosophy can be a frustrating subject since there is almost never a satisfying moment where you reach a final conclusion and hence many people dismiss the discipline as a group of people who never tend to shower sit on the couch and talk about the universe. There are many schools of thought, not just postmodern feminism. In fact, there are also an abundance of philosophers that have a true passion for science as well as renowned scientists who also shared a great enthusiasm for this academic discipline. Philosophy helps you to precisize your thoughts and sharpens the theoretical framework of your investigations. How can this not be supporting practical research?