An undergraduate philosophy teacher asks: "In your opinion, for potential doctoral candidates in Philosophy, what is the most useful foreign language by specialty?"
I've opened comments (no anonymous posts!). I'll begin with a few observations of my own.
For the undergraduate still undecided about his or her particular interests in philosophy, the safest bet is German, i.e., it is the language most likely to be useful wherever one ends up concentrating in philosophy. Several of the most important figures in the history of philosophy wrote in German, of course, and German is a primary language in which important scholarship is done in several areas of philosophy, both historical and contemporary. My impression is that French is a distant second to German, though obviously indispensable for certain topics and figures.
In ancient philosophy, one obviously must have classical Greek and probably also Latin, but it is equally essential to have several other languages, given the truly international community of scholarship in this field. My impression is that German and Italian are the most important languages right now for scholars of ancient philosophy, but that French is also valuable.
My impression is that in philosophy of language and mind, metaphysics, and epistemology, the main philosophical work in the English-speaking universities is overwhelmingly in English, though some is in German, and a bit less in French and Italian. (Perhaps the Italian share is larger than I realize.) It is not uncommon for specialists in these areas to have no foreign languages at all.
In moral and political philosophy, English is again the primary language, but German is quite important, both for historical and contemporary contributions. The same is true for philosophy of law, though there one might add, interestingly, Italian, where quite a lot of jurisprudential work is being done, some of which is permeating Anglophone consciousness.
Other perspectives are welcome, and feel free to take issue with the advice, above.
