I see you're point. Many philosophers still like reading and writing about dead people rather than looking to science for entertainment and answers. However, it is a hasty generalization to infer from this fact that "philosophy is a diseased discipline which spends much of its time debating definitions, ignoring relevant scientific results, and endlessly re-interpreting old dead guys who didn't know the slightest bit of 20th century science." And it is a bit myopic to think that your suggestion has not already been addressed by numerous institutions.

Plenty of philosophers study contemporary science and statistics about as much as philosophy. I myself am very interested in understanding philosophical cognition, and I am by no means alone in that interest.

The reason most departments do not teach what you want them to teach is because almost no one in a philosophy department specializes in what you are after, otherwise they would not be (solely) in the philosophy department. So to do what you want, universities would have to offer philosophy degrees that are interdisciplinary...and they already do. CU Boulder, UCSD, and GSU all offer PhDs in philosophy and neuroscience, for example.

This post has me wondering if we should make basic philosophy (and by basic I do not mean "ancient") compulsory for computer science, engineering, and science majors. Perhaps that would obviate the need for unwarranted commentary like this post.

Please oh please make an MMORPG game out of this that requires accredited college credits in philosophy and science to level up. Please!

Question: If I am new to LW meetups and only about to begin grad school in philosophy, then will this meetup be "out of my league"?