In saying that the individual should not be the origin or his or her thoughts is dealing with inspiration.  An idea is something that is passed onto an individual, and the individual will process it and come up his or her own convictions.  This will later be passed to others who will build upon it.  It was never an original thought, it just is considered by different people in different ways.

This is very much what research deals with.  Each topic that is chosen for research is one that has already been considered and reserached.  It is the researcher’s obligation to find what has already been ‘thought’ and learn about the ideas that are already presented.  Once the reseracher understands these, different ideas should be inspired from them.