This introduction is lifted from “Philosophy is inextricably tied to concretes” from “How to pursue philosophy” from Introduction to Philosophy.
All knowledge is ultimately knowledge from and of concretes. Ultimately, only particulars exist. Abstractions are objective but do not exist apart from particulars; they are the results of the selective focus of consciousness on particulars (the objectivity of abstractions is discussed in epistemology). Of course, the same holds for philosophical ideas. If a philosophy is to form the basis of your thoughts and actions, you must grasp how concretes integrate into the broad abstractions in philosophy and how the broad abstractions can be reduced back to concretes. You must grasp philosophy as much in terms of concretes experienced first-hand as in terms of abstractions.
For example, the idea that life is the standard of value in ethics must be concretised in terms of the experience you gain in life as you live it and the particular choices you make to stay alive and advance your life. Similarly, the idea that reason is the only means to know reality must be concretised by staying in focus, looking at the world in terms of essentials, understanding what concrete goals to pursue and why, and of course, exercising your mind in learning how to act within reality to achieve your goals.
Hence, to the key point: if done properly, philosophy is the most practical area of study and has no value if divorced from practice. I reject the idea of doing philosophy for philosophy’s sake. It is an area of study that is too abstract to hold meaning without conscientious concretisation and too essential to our lives to not put into practice wherever and whenever clarity is achieved.
NOTE: The above topics are arranged in a certain order to facilitate comprehension, but in fact, there is no inherent order for every topic; in general, the topics are aspects of the same integrated whole and must be considered as a logical whole rather than a logical progression.