Now, as a final task we must devote ourselves to answering the question that is sure to be asked: What is the use of Philosophy? To answer the question properly would obviously require a philosophical criticism of the conception of use, an examination of the assumption at the back of our minds when we employ it. Do we mean, How will Philosophy help us to make a living? or how will it help us to make ourselves, and perhaps others, more materially comfortable? Or what? But such an examination cannot be undertaken here. We must content ourselves with trying to suggest what Philosophy may do, what effect it may have on us: and leave it to each one to decide for himself of what use be considers that to be.
I think for most of us the question has the implication, 'What will the study of Philosophy enable us to do besides studying Philosophy?' And for the person who really takes up such study because it interests him, the question is largely irrelevant. He examines his assumptions just because he wants to get clear about them. He wants to know what they mean, and whether they are well-founded. And that for him is sufficient reason for spending time in examining them. For those who believe that knowledge is in itself one of the highest goods, and that philosophical knowledge is one of the highest forms of knowledge, the study needs no further justification. But it can probably be shown that it has beyond this, certain results which are of the highest value.
(G. C. Field, What Is Philosophy? A Public Lecture Delivered at the University of Liverpool [Liverpool: The University Press, 1920], 26)
