Reconceptualizing negative capability in cognitive science: A theoretical outlook based on the Quantum Zeno effect as a structural metaphor

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical reconceptualization of negative capability (NC), understood as the capacity to remain with indeterminacy and suspend premature closure, within a cognitive scientific framework. While NC has traditionally been discussed in poetic and clinical contexts, the argument situates it in relation to indeterminacy and introduces the Quantum Zeno effect (QZE) as a structural model for describing the interplay between observation and state transitions. NC is characterized here as a metacognitive capacity that modulates transitions between cognitive states through the frequency and timing of observation or evaluation. By articulating the theoretical intersections among NC, indeterminacy, and QZE, the article recasts NC as a form of cognitive tolerance of, and regulatory control over, undecided states under indeterminacy, shaped by temporal and attentional dynamics. This framework illuminates how the mind can sustain ambiguity, delay commitment, and reorganize meaning over time, and it points toward future directions for modeling, operationalization, and empirical investigation of NC within cognitive science.