A wonderful essay! Thank you.

I don't disagree with your technical argument on first philosophy, but I submit that there is value to mentally investigating the thought structure as its own value in finding connections. One may construct a certain scaffolding in their brain to attempt to divine the structure of right and wrong or first cause, and then find out that their premises were all based on smoke, but then realize that the structure (scientific method, for example) works out in the real world to divine facts, if not philosophical 'Truth'.

My armchair philosophy after 9/11/2001 came to these assertions as definitions (maybe to create their own axis):

Human: a primate that creates a model of the universe inside its brain, and upon physical maturity, moves a model of its self inside that model, avoiding reality at all costs.

Evil: an action taken based on an unquestioned belief.

Net future usefulness: the anti-entropy that living organisms contribute to the future of their self, offspring and environment in excess of the raw materials they consume.

Another chart that you might want to contemplate might be the anti-intentionality forces that profit from keeping people submerged in pseudo-information.

For example, how the net usefulness of religion historically is the concrete connections that held communities together (God as the marketing department for the town meeting) for survival and success (Masons), but modern religion has become a competitive commodity to sell with brand names, etc.

The advertising industry that promotes "free choice" works very hard to keep people from knowing that their choices are manipulated with natural mechanisms (sex, drugs, bright colors, competitive fanaticisms (brands), and fear).

The semi-organic development of profit-based systems has grown into dollarized machinery far beyond anything that Bernays even dreamed of, with levels of finance that are greater than most nations.

Those profits are directed at preventing people from questioning their purchases and the resulting forces of politics and business that seem confusing to the masses that are used as justification for (un?)intentional global imperialism.

Global capitalism has its own pseudo-philosophy that is at war with the links between humans, intention and facts.

It has grown to fill a crack in our philosophy and drive us away from reality.