I want to know if there are any universities in Berlin that offer an
MA degree in Philosophy, taught entirely in English, so I could move
there and study despite my limited German. I know there are such
courses available in the Netherlands. If there is no such course in
Berlin, where else could I do it?

Dear DCmtr, 

I'm afraid that none of Berlin's universities offers such a course.
You can see the list of Masters degrees offered in English in Berlin
here:
DAAD
<http://www.daad.de/deutschland/studium/idp/04709.en.html?faechergruppe=-1&lehrbereich=&sprache=2&abschluss=-1&ort=Berlin&enter.x=85&enter.y=10>

It seems, that the only masters degree taught entirely in English in
philosophy is the programme in Computational Logic at Dresden
Technical University.
The International Center for Computational Logic
<http://www.computational-logic.org/>

Given the fact that you'd have to learn the local language to get by
outside the university (even if you end up in the Netherlands),
consider learning it also for the academic purpose. After all, some of
the greatest philosophers were German or wrote in that language.
Wouldn't it be nice to read them in the original language?

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

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Request for Answer Clarification by dcmtr-ga on 06 Sep 2006 08:00 PDT

Nice idea, but I find the idea of becoming fluent enough to write a
long dissertation in German way too daunting! The idea would have been
to learn some basic German in advance and pick up a bit more while I
was studying the masters. It would indeed be nice to read Kant, among
others, in the original.

Anyway, sorry to trouble you further, but could you tell me if there
are any insititutions in other continental countries that offer
English speaking courses? Just one or two examples would do if you
could find any.

Many thanks.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 06 Sep 2006 10:23 PDT

Dear DCmtr, 

First of all, there's a difference between writing your dissertation
(or Master's thesis) and having the entire degree in English,
including the classes: I think that most German professors will agree
to accept a thesis/dissertation written in English (I know for example
that mine would).

As for other European countries, this is another question and you
should have posted it as a new one. However, I have found a search
engine, that gave me 98 results for postgraduate degrees in Europe in
philosophy. The probelms with these results:
- It wouldn't distinguish between UK/Ireland and continental Europe
(but at least on the first page most universities are not in the
UK/Ireland)
- It wouldn't distinguis between postgraduate masters and doctoral degrees; and
- It wouldn't distinguish between programmes taught entirely in
English and programmes taught in English and the local language.

Going through these results in order to find you suitable programmes
would take time, but if you want to do it yourself, the database is
here:
Ploteus
<http://europa.eu.int/ploteus/portal/searchcustom.jsp>

If you want me (or someone else) to do the screening between the 98
results, just ask again.

I don't think my request for clarification was unfair - my original
question asked for suggestions anywhere, not just in Germany. This was
a very high quality answer anyway. Thank you.