John Keats' concept of 'negative capability' '“ or sitting in uncertainty '“ is needed now more than ever

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Richard Gunderman, Indiana University (THE CONVERSATION) When John Keats died 200 years ago, on Feb. 23, 1821, he was just 25 years old. Despite his short life, he’s still considered one of the finest poets in the English language. Yet in addition to masterpieces such as ‘œOde to a Nightingale’� and ‘œTo Autumn,’� Keats’ legacy includes a remarkable concept: what he called ‘œnegative capability.’� The idea ‘” which centers on suspending judgment about something in order to learn more about it ‘” remains as vital today as when he first wrote about it. Keats lost most of his family members to an infectious disease, tuberculosis, that would take his own life. In the same way the COVID-19 pandemic turned the worlds of many people upside down, the poet had developed a deep sense of life’s uncertainties. Keats was born in London in 1795. His father died in a horse-riding accident when Keats was eight years old, and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14. As a teenager, he commenced medical studies, first as an apprentice to a local surgeon and later as a medical student at Guy’s Hospital, where he assisted with surgeries and cared for all kinds of people. After completing his studies, however, Keats decided to pursue poetry. In 1819, he composed many of his greatest poems, though they didn’t receive widespread acclaim during his lifetime. By 1820, he had contracted tuberculosis and relocated to Rome, where he hoped the warmer climate would help him recover. He ended up dying a year later. Keats coined the term negative capability in a letter he wrote to his brothers George and Tom in 1817. Inspired by Shakespeare’s work, he describes it as ‘œbeing in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.’� Negative here is not pejorative. Instead, it implies the ability to resist explaining away what we do not understand. Rather than coming to an immediate conclusion about an event, idea or person, Keats advises resting in doubt and continuing to pay attention and probe in order to understand it more completely. In this, he anticipates the work of Nobel laureate economist Daniel Kahneman, who cautions against the naïve view that ‘œWhat you see is all there is.’� It is also a good idea to take the time to look at matters from multiple perspectives. Shakespeare’s comedies are full of mistaken identities and misconceptions, including mixed-up genders. Keats reminds us that we are most likely to gain new insights if we can stop assuming that we know everything we need to know about people by neatly shoehorning them into preconceived boxes. Negative capability also testifies to the importance of humility, which Keats described as a ‘œcapability of submission.’� As Socrates indicates in Plato’s ‘œApology,’� the people least likely to learn anything new are the ones who think they already know it all. By contrast, those who are willing to question their own assumptions and adopt new perspectives are in the best position to arrive at new insights. Keats believed that the world could never be fully understood, let alone controlled. In his view, pride and arrogance must be avoided at all costs, an especially apt warning as the world confronts challenges such as climate change and COVID-19. At the same time, information technology seems to give everyone instant access to all human knowledge. To be sure, the internet is one gateway to knowledge. But it also indiscriminately spreads misinformation and propaganda, often fueled by algorithms that profit off division. This, it goes without saying, can cloud understanding with false certainty.