Negative capability is the capacity to tolerate ambiguity and contradiction—to dwell in not-knowing—without rushing to impose logic, closure, or certainty. It’s an openness to experience and complexity, a refusal to simplify prematurely. 

In this context, negative does not mean adverse, rather it refers to an absence, the ability to release the need for control or certainty. Capability in turn means the creative skill to embrace uncertainty, tension, and paradox creatively.

Possessing negative capability means we remain open to ways and ideas different from our own, that we do not immediately discount conflicting information or rush to judgment or premature decisions. An emotional tolerance for ambiguity, the mental strength to be present with the discomfort of uncertainty, to let situations unfold without an overriding need for immediate, inopportune resolution: these are all powerful traits in a complex and ever-evolving world.

Closing Quotes:

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” – Voltaire, 1694-1778

“Most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.” – Virginia Satir, 1916-1988, family systems therapist

“Much of modern life is preventable chronic stress from a pathological inability to deal with uncertainty.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, b. 1960

“Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well-informed just to be undecided about them.” – Laurence J. Peter, 1919-1990, The Peter Principle

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, The Crack-Up, 1936

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier

Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832