Where our words come from: Stanley Cavell and the root of speech

Abstract Making ourselves intelligible, we often contend with what exceeds our control. One example is the way words come to us on their own, sponsored by what might be called word energies. While this usually poses little difficulty for poets or people going about their ordinary lives as native speakers, philosophers have often found the matter less straightforward. Should word energies be trusted? Should they be repressed? This article approaches Stanley Cavell’s accommodation with word energies first through the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Then it explores the same subject through Cavell’s reading of Wittgenstein and Emerson. Though they are apparently contradictory, Cavell brings the ideas of both philosophers together in what this article will call the ‘Cavellian schematism’. In conclusion, we reflect on the theme’s relevance to education and the usefulness of the expression ‘the thought of other cultures’.