Salvete omnes,
Mi Piscine, I think you have said things and touched issues which are indeed very relevant to modern philosophy, much more so than philosophy about atomary sentences or dialectical materialism.
Personally I feel that the role of philosophy could be made clear from the very beginnings of education, perhaps in elementary school already. Instead of teaching these kids religion they might get philosophy. I think it would not only help to develop a sense of healthy criticism, but to also to learn what it's like to rationally debate over issues using logic rather than emotive rhetorics. Call me naieve, but I would even push it as far as saying that philosophy might save us from unreasonability and superstition, if everyone has some basic notions of it. But then again, there have also been unreasonable philosophers
.
Questions on ethics today are very important. I feel that philosophers should take stronger stances and make their voices heard better. Today ethics are (again) the exclusive domain of religion. In the west and especially the USA, the re-emergence of conservative christianity and political neoconservatism in the last decades has influenced the perspective on ethics. Philosophers and intellectuals, if they can speak with a voice loud enough, could counter this.
The problem I fear is that most modern philosophers are academics who don't go "to the people" enough (whatever that may entail...) and use traditional intellectual forums to make themselves heard which are usually not visited or read by the common man. The same applies here in Europe, by the way. Ethics and morality are mostly determined by politicians, who of course have their own respective (political) philosophical backgrounds, but philosophers are rarely heard, unless in columnistic essays where only few of them have strong positions. Of course it's important to nuance and not to fall into the black vs white trap but sometimes I would like to hear stronger, bolder opinions. Where's the time philosophers, such as Voltaire when he returned to Paris, were enthusiastically greeted by crowds?
Sic transit gloria mundi... or not?
Valete!
Draco
Gn. Dionysius Draco Invictus