Ideas Come in Speaking

In one of my master’s research seminars, I was told about a paper, On the gradual construction of thoughts during speech, written by German author Heinrich von Kleist (1771-1811). In the paper, von Kleist advises that,

If there is something you want to know and cannot discover by meditation, then, my dear, ingenious friend, I advise you to discuss it with the first acquaintance whom you happen to meet. He need not have a sharp intellect, nor do I mean that you should question him on the subject. No! Rather you yourself should begin by telling it all to him.”

Early in conversations with friends, I sometimes raise philosophical problems that I have tackled in essays, or I talk about problems that I have recently come across in a book and found deep or surprising. On such occasions, they are topics that I do not fully understand. Yet, generally, conversations are thought to proceed on the basis of what one understands; that is, one should speak about what one already knows. This way, one is able to perform some kind of service to others; to inform or enlighten others. But von Kleist thinks we should first and foremost be concerned with enlightening ourselves. He says:

I want you to speak with the reasonable purpose of enlightening yourself, and it is possible that each of these rules of conduct, different as they are, will apply in certain cases. The French say: l’appétit vient en mangeant [“appetite comes with eating”] and this maxim holds true when parodied into: l’idée vient en parlant.

The parodied maxim is that ideas come in speaking. Just as writing can lead to a synthesis of new thoughts and make old ones clearer, the same can be said of thought spoken out loud.