Does philosophy matter?

DOES PHILOSOPHY MATTER? Stanley Fish begins his op-ed in the Times by providing a quick anecdote on moral relativism, including information on a disagreement with Paul Boghossian – "Boghossian defines relativism (and I’ll go along with his definition for the purposes of this column) as the denial of moral absolutes. But the definition is insufficiently nuanced because  there are (at least) two ways of denying moral absolutes." – before posing the following question:

But does any of this matter outside the esoteric arena of philosophical disputation? Let’s suppose that either of  two acts of persuasion has occurred in that arena: a former moral absolutist is now a relativist of some kind, or a former relativist is now a confirmed believer in moral absolutes. What exactly will have changed  when one set of philosophical views has been swapped for another? Almost nothing. To be sure you will now give different answers than you once would have when you are asked about moral facts, objective truths, irrefutable evidence and so on; but when you are engaged in trying to decide what is  the right thing to do in a particular situation, none of the answers you might give to these deep questions  will have any bearing on your decision. You won’t say, “Because I  believe in moral absolutes, I’ll take this new job or divorce my husband or vote for the Democrat.” Nor will you say, “Because I deny moral absolutes I have no basis for deciding since any decision I make is as good or bad as any other.” What you will say, if only to yourself, is “Given what is at stake, and  the likely outcomes of taking this or that action, I think I’ll do this.”  Neither “I believe in moral absolutes” nor “I don’t”  will be a reason in the course of  ordinary, non-philosophical, deliberation.

No. In honesty, it doesn't matter, when put in such simple terms. But the philosopher's job is not to make life easier or work to achieve efficiency, operating in the realms of practicality. No, the philosopher's job is to simply place himself on the outside, looking in; to be disinterested and engaged, but not to tamper. Philosophy is not a subject whereby the objective is to come to some understanding, thus allowing the world to be improved and made a happier place to live, but instead simply to come to an understanding, and little else. Gather thoughts, ruminate, and try to make sense of it all. In the preface for The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde concludes, rather succinctly: "We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless." I suppose philosophy, like art, is useless. But that doesn't mean we'd prefer to live in a world without it.