Michele Le Dœuff ’s keynote lecture ‘Occasionally the Unforeseen Happens’ generated enthusiastic applause at the annual UK conference of the Society for European Philosophy (SEP) and the Forum for European Philosophy (FEP) which it opened on 1 September 2011. The enthusiasm of her listeners was not only for what Le Dœuff said, but also for how it was said. Immediately after hearing her keynote, it was reported, for example, that ‘Le Dœuff is clearly a specimen of that all too rare species, an extremely insightful and sharp thinker who is nonetheless a pleasant and amiable person’.1 This ‘all too rare species’ has generally not appeared in the long history of western philosophy. But this implies that Le Dœuff herself is an exception to a general rule. The critical question is whether Le Dœuff opens up new doors for women in philosophy; or, whether she has unwittingly restricted feminist philosophy to those very few insightful and sharp thinkers who are also pleasant and amiable. Fortunately, in spite of possible doubts, Le Dœuff ’s lecture continues to create intellectual excitement in her readers, insofar as she actively opens up the thinking of different groups of philosophers, of men and of women, to something new. Although the members of SEP and of FEP alike were and are interested in European philosophy, they remain separated by their respective philosophical styles. Roughly, the former (SEP) follows closely the trends and methods of thought ‘on the Continent’, while the latter (FEP) discusses Continental philosophy in Anglo-American analytical terms. Le Dœuff ’s insight was to suggest the possibility of reciprocity between philosophers, whose distinctive styles of philosophizing need not always be treated as an obstacle to collective work. Instead differences in style provide