What term did John Keats use in an 1817 letter for accepting uncertainty in art?

The term John Keats used in an 1817 letter for accepting uncertainty in art was negative capability.

Keats introduced the phrase in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas dated 22 December 1817. He defined it as the ability to remain in “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts” without irritably demanding factual or philosophical certainty. For Keats, this receptiveness was central to great literary achievement.

He praised William Shakespeare as an especially powerful example because Shakespeare could inhabit different characters and viewpoints without forcing every work to endorse one fixed doctrine. Keats contrasted this openness with what he regarded as Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s tendency to pursue overarching philosophical explanations.

Negative capability does not mean ignorance or carelessness. It describes an artist’s willingness to remain attentive to ambiguity and “half-knowledge,” allowing beauty, imagination, and lived experience to matter even when reason cannot settle every question.