OK, away from the attempts to craft verbose and clever sounding arguments while attributing ignorance to everyone else for a moment.
I would have to say that philosophy serves a number of purposes for me and I'll list them for convenience sake:
- Entertainment and diversion, its undeniable that philosophy serves me because it proves interesting to me and I like to read and discuss what I've read, it is a big topic. This is one of the things which a consider important about philosophy besides it actually having any utility. Most individuals can manage to get through life, its challenges and stresses with their practical reason and, providence or good fortune permitting, what capacity for adaptive thinking and behaviour they've developed over the lifespan, ie psychology.
- It is a source of wisdom and a knowledge base, to be honest I've outgrown the tendency to imagine that I'm having unique and original bursts of insight with perrenial significance, its not so much believing that there's nothing new under the sun but just that there really is not the need to expend the energy, effort and time some people to reaching the conclusions that others have already reached, often with more eloquence than I can master. I really do believe that those who dont learn from the past, or specifically others painful mistakes, are doomed to repeat them or live the same mistakes and misadventures out themselves.
- There is a lot in philosophy, mainly stoicism, which prefigures the development of present day psychology and applied psychology in the form of therapies, seriously, cognitive behavioural therapy is just applied stoicism, reading and rereading the manuals Euripides (spelling) it is obvious that what is being talked about is the reframing and positive or objective rationalisations which CBT aims for. Zen achieves similar results in different ways and is much more holistic, aiming to overcome cerebration. The emphasis upon "knowing thyself" preigures psycho-analysis and Jung's whole work is a tribute to the philosophies and religions of the past interpreted in the new light of recent (to his own time) insight. So philosophy provides a lot of coping strategies for life's challenges and stress. You dont need what philosophy provides, you may get by without it, but its there why not use it?
- Resonance. Sometimes its good to know that you're not the only person who has faced a particular dilemma, not just in the seeking of a solution either but simply that you're not experiencing something totally alone. Philosophy is probably as good as psychology when it comes to interpreting or describing or dealing with existential angst, possibly more so because it can use literary sources, examples or forms which psychology generally wouldnt.
To me applied psychology isnt about learning doctrines which can allow you to craft a better arguments, appear clever to your peers or feed your ego, people are going to find it serves them in different ways and that's fine. Perhaps the only real application which is universal is the bridging effect between the past and present, possibly the future, or between individuals.
My two cents anyway.