I'll preface the question with the fact that I don't mean to sound accusatory. I'm not widely studied in philosophy so for all I know this could be an area where philosophy is already having a profound impact.
That said, in the last 4-5 centuries the scientific method has come to prominence in terms of affecting our society, for better or worse. Modern science is laying down a pretty strong framework for making testable predictions about reality. This has led to implications in everything from technology, to advertising, to politics.
Problem being it doesn't seem like many people are talking about what we ought to be doing, or where we should be directing ourselves. Those are the types of questions that cannot be answered by modern science, and seem to be a fantastic as well as desperately needed avenue of relevance for the field of philosophy.
So I wonder if that's an area that philosophy... ought.. to grow?
It doesn't seem like many people are talking about what we ought to be doing, or where we should be directing ourselves.
It's an interesting statement, because a lot of what moderns politics is now about is precisely that - what we as a society ought to be doing, what the state ought to be doing (or not doing), etc. Do you mean specifically that philosophers/historians-of-philosophy don't provide enough guidance in this area?