4.3. Creative Knowledge
Unlike deductive and inductive knowledge, creative knowledge does not
rely on knowledge provenance. It provides plausible
explanations/solutions to an issue. This, in some cases, might lead to
controversies. Creative knowledge exists in three categories—analytic
a-priori-based, synthetic a-priori-based, and synthetic a
posteriori-based—described as follows.
Let us first consider analytic a-priori-based creative knowledge. As the
name suggests, this category of knowledge is introduced by an individual
to define certain concepts; however, the definitions can be considered
false or true depending on the personal preference of others. This
implies that some may consider the definitions to be true, whereas
others may not. For example, consider the concept map depicted in Figure
6. It boils down to following statements—(1) A product attribute means
an attractive attribute, reverse attribute, indifferent attribute,
must-be attribute, or one-dimensional attribute; (2) Presence of an
attractive attribute contributes to customer satisfaction; (3) Absence
of attractive attribute does not contribute to customer dissatisfaction.
The first statement is a piece of analytic a-priori-based creative
knowledge. The reason is as follows. Here, statement (1) classifies
product attributes into five types (Kano et al., 1984; Ullah and Tamaki,
2011). Other researchers may define product attributes in other possible
ways. Consequently, this statement may be true for some product
developers and false or partially true for others. On the other hand,
statements (2) and (3) do not qualify as pieces of
analytic-a-priori-based creative knowledge because these statements
collectively define the nature of the attractive attribute exclusively.
Thus, statements (2) and (3) represent definitional knowledge. Besides
the above mentioned example, consider the following statements to
further understand the analytic-a-priori-based creative knowledge—(1)
“Fundamental human needs demonstrate a hierarchy, and they can be
classified in the ascending order as—physiological needs, safety
needs, social belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization;” (2)
“Fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical, and they can be
classified as subsistence, protection, affection, understanding,
participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom.” Both these
statements define human needs in two different ways. Therefore, both
represent pieces of analytic-a-priori-based creative knowledge. The
former statement was proposed by Maslow (Maslow, 1943, 1954), whereas
the latter was proposed by Max-Neef (Max-Neef, 1991, 1992; Ullah et al.,
2016). If someone attempts another definition of human needs will be
created. However, its category would remain
unchanged—analytic-a-priori-based creative knowledge. Thus, the
definition of knowledge presented in section 3 boils down to some pieces
of analytic a-priori-based creative knowledge.