The Role of Human Creativity in the Evolutionary Research Method with an Emphasis on the Social Sciences

Human creativity plays a significant role in the construction of scientific theories. However, scientific methodology is sometimes explained in a way that suggests scientific theories are constructed through a deterministic and absolute adherence to a few, clearly defined, and purely logical stages. Evolutionary methodology, by defining the position of creativity within the research process and demarcating itself from qualitative and quantitative approaches, introduces the concept of “Creative Attunement” in contrast to the notions of “construction” and “discovery.”

The term “Attunement” refers both to the necessity of the researcher’s creativity being in harmony with the capacities of the real world, and to its compatibility with the value propositions from which the ideal state of phenomena is inferred. Furthermore, rationality is presented as a structural and social matter, while creativity is depicted as an individual and structure-breaking one. In the evolutionary research methodology, however, an organizational method is proposed for creating new quality. This method guides the process of forming a new worldview—from its inception to its societal realization—by organizing the public (including both specialists and the general community).

In this paper, quantitative, qualitative, and evolutionary methodologies are compared using a deductive and logical analysis approach. Their differences, from the perspective of human creativity, are articulated along the following dimensions: “the relationship between epistemology and ontology,” “validation,” “the purpose and process of research,” and “the role of society in the formation of a scientific theory.”