Does philosophy ask "why am I here" in the sense of helping us understand how we got here?
Specifically, will philosophy help (I'm sure they won't answer it directly!) me understand why it is that I am here, rather than somewhere else (flying to mars, homeless, whatever)?
If the question is too philosophical broad, I would be interested in existential philosophers.
Philosophers asks those questions because the question seems like it has an answer, but quickly exposes many problems. Trying to rationally answer many seemingly simple questions have problems with robustness. But they stretch us to examine things and think about things beyond our immediate perception.
There are many outcomes that could happen to you as a philosopher asking such questions, some good, some bad. You may :-
So you may go through all of those, none of those, and you may or may not get some kind of understanding of why you are here. But, in exploring this question you will come across other peoples ideas about why they think they are "here". So at the very least, you will learn something.
Maybe because you happen to be?
All current events are caused by antecedent conditions, so at one level of analysis you can reflect back on the vicissitudes of life that brought you here.
But if you're looking for a teleological answer as to why didn't those antecedent conditions play out in a different way out of the infinite possibilities, you are in for some serious disappointment.
It is you who must first justify the assumption that there should/can/must be a higher or bigger (preplanned?) "purpose" to anything at all.
Your question "Why am I here?" could be taken to mean any number of things, but you appear to clarify (slightly, and rather confusingly) in the first and second paragraphs when you say:
The first could be taken as a biological question or a religious one. The second might refer to counterfactual scenarios, to a question regarding the extent of human agency, or perhaps to an inquiry into the question of why a person makes one set of decisions rather than another (if the latter is true, then it's likely a psychological question).
The danger I see is attempting to answer a biological, psychological, or religious question in a manner that is uniquely philosophical. Of course, that's not always an easy boundary to discern, but it often amounts to a person conducting some ill-formed study of life (for example) from the armchair. I don't think anyone will get very far if he intends to gather knowledge of mitochondrial DNA or the history of the cosmos by means of pure speculation.
I assume that many immersed in the philosophical tradition would classify topics such as counterfactuals and human agency (especially if the latter amounts to a question of freedom of will) as being properly philosophical. David Lewis and Saul Kripke (contemporary professors of philosophy) wrote quite a bit about counterfactuals, and countless philosophers had something to say about the determinism debate (Hume in the 18th Century, and Mark Balaguer this century). Additionally, if your question is related not just to agency in terms of outward action but also to freedom of belief (doxastic voluntarism), many others have commented on the topic: Dion Scott-Kakures, William Alston, and Robert Audi come to mind.
Final note: Philosophy does not ask questions, people do. However, I understood what you meant.
