When philosophy became a profession it began to die a slow death?
We are all or at least should be philosophers.
Specialization, fragmentation, and reductionism are what philosophy is designed to overcome not sucumb to. The larger questions of life, the search for eternal or transcendent truth, a unifying picture or principle of reality, life and experience.

I imagine that people have been saying that sort of thing about painting, music, physics, and even chess. And yet, all these human endeavors have only benefited from professionalism. As has philosophy. I think we can trace professional academic philosophy to Immanuel Kant who (perhaps) was the first professional philosopher (paid to be a philosopher). And he was fairly good at his job.

Prothero, I agree, specialization and fragmentation take from the whole rather than contribute to it, at least in the present hierarchical fashion that knowledge is used to sell access to life.
I read today that 3000 years ago the words "Rehabilitate the poor at the hands of the king" were written, along with other quotations, on a piece of pottery.
Had our leaders throughout history followed that simple philosophy, instead of disregarded it in favor of personal enrichment, well-----
The farmer, laborer and shepherd are the heart of continued existence for all humans. These keystones of survival support all human activity, and allow the expression of our talents to achieve fruition.
The specialization of talents demanded to exist in our societies have removed our ability to survive in any other way, and forced humankind to compete with itself for our one common resource, Earth.
One selfish train of thought has resulted in 95% of humankind working for, and being governed by 5%.
Philosophy is indeed a powerful thing, but the will of "man" can shape its consequence, if he acquires the courage to realize the power of one.

---------- Post added 01-18-2010 at 05:00 AM ----------

Kennethamy, it is true we have benefited from professionalism, or the sale of our talents. But, as with any paid activity, the results will be slanted towards the wishes of the purchaser. We have also benefited from the technological advances provided by wars, pharmaceuticals and the like, in fact a great portion of the developed nations wealth is derived from, and dependant on, these professional activities. The financial and legal sectors of society also benefit many from the sale of their professionalism, as do the professional politicians. The results of all this professionalism are readily apparent, and with all due respect it is not the talents of all these professionals that is in question, but the use they are put to.
Just about every nation on Earth is bankrupt as a result of these activities, with the exception of China and Switzerland, and that's only because one is paid to produce our products as cheaply as possible, and the other is where we hoard the profits.
It is the philosophies adopted by all these entities that patently do not work to the overall benefit of humanity, let alone the Earth that supports it.
It is not a question of finger pointing, for we have only ourselves to blame for our own ills, to some degree or other. No matter what way you look at it, if we want to benefit from our time here in a sustainable fashion then a change of attitude, read philosophy, must occur, and all change must begin with you.