The problem with the post-structuralists is that it sort-of-kind-of forces philosophy into the corner of the obscure and irrelevant. Not because the angels-on-pinhead type debate it revels in is necessarily obscure or irrelevant but rather because that is not a theoretical detail or exercise but apparently the actual core of the discipline. For example, CS has
some of that too as exemplified by and let's not get started on Software Engineering. However ostensibly both CS and Software Engineering are not all hung up about the angels on the pinhead, but on getting on with life and discovering new things. This is where post structuralism falls down: having dug so deep to undermine everything they kind of lost sight of the entrance/exit of the mineshaft. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has given up on the rescue and simply put up some yellow tape and danger signs near the entrance/exit.
Try and compare with Plato, Aristotle, Augustine etc. Whatever their errors, at least they were trying to solve thorny questions and grapple with the big theory questions of their day -- advancing the field.
Which is kind of why HoreTore is right to dismiss them. Mathematics is fundamentally not a vague description of the world, it is rather a precise and abstract definition based on what we see of the world. It is exactly the opposite of what post structuralist navel gazing would have you believe. 1 + 1 = 2, not because one bean and another bean makes two beans instead of "some beans", but because 1 + 1 = 2 is proven Math (by Bertrand Russell IIRC). It is no coincidence that we can describe the world in terms of Mathematics, we defined the Mathematics so we could do it in a convenient way. That's also why even basic Math today used to be pretty state of the art only 100 years ago, whereas in other areas the state of the art has only recently advanced beyond what it was even thousands of years ago.
This also means that you (the philosophers) have to do rather better than playing at Humpty Dumpty with the words; you have to produce something of real knowledge, of real value. Not everyone is willing to venture past the looking glass for your argument's sake. Which also explains why philosophy doesn't really make the waves it could do even 100 years ago, it long ceded the role of soul searching and answering existential questions to the natural sciences in favour of attacking dictionary definitions.
Philosophy has real use, but in order to be recognised and to fulfill its potential it might need to actually engage with the wider world.
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