“To put Negative Capability into practice, you must develop the habit of suspending the need to judge everything that crosses your path.”

Mastery, Chapter 5, The Creative-Active

Negative Capability is a concept introduced by the English poet John Keats in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas in 1817.

It refers to the capacity of an individual to embrace uncertainty, ambiguity, and the mysteries of existence, without seeking to impose rational explanations or conclusive answers.

Keats described it as the ability to dwell comfortably in a state of uncertainty and doubt, without reaching after fact or reason.

It represents an open to the vastness of possibilities and the complexities of existence without feeling the need to resolve them into neat, rational explanations.

He saw it as the foundation of creativity and imagination—a key quality for artists and thinkers that allows them to engage fully with the complexities of life and to produce work that reflects the richness and depth of human experience, that resonates on multiple levels and provokes thought and reflection.

The question, then, is how do we achieve a state of Negative Capability?