What is the point / purpose of Philosophy?

The purpose of philosophy is two-fold.

1- The art of phrasing questions to be unanswerable.

2- The art of phrasing any statement to sound more intelligent than it is.

The first is merely entertaining and serves no other use.

The second is used to impress people, and finds its greatest application in hitting on cultured women. If that's your type.

Food for thought.

Science has at least two purposes. One, so-called "basic science", is to learn about the physical nature of our reality; the other, the engineering function, is to exercise prediction and control over that reality. Science can answer questions and build bridges. Philosophy, it seems, has provided the conceptual foundations for scientific methodology and theory (i.e., the philosophy of science), but it can also provide us with psychological benefits, orienting us to Reality in ways that are more satisfying to us. But if I were limited to a single sentence regarding the purpose or function of philosophy, I would say it makes life interesting. Art makes it beautiful and science makes it more secure--at least up until the Manhattan Project. I will not comment on the function of mysticism, because it has none. It goes beyond all that.

It's... something to do.

Oh you want a quote, here you go...

Hmmm, sounds like the legal profession to me.

Being a lawyer does not help a person pick up chicks. Or, at least, that has been my personal experience.

Of course, being a philosopher probably didn't help Socrates pick up chicks either.

joefromchicago: I don't think Socrates swung that way.

I pretty much agree with what JLNobody said. Regarding that, I didn't take physics in school but I did like to read a little about it in my spare time. I used to like to say that physics was the science of philosophy.