Critical Thinking: Getting to First Principles

If you have been following my newsletter, you'll know that for getting better at lifelong learning, I am advocating for 2 Cs. They are Critical Thinking and Curation. I have put some thoughts for Curation in this issue here, if you are interested.

Recent events have prompted and inspired this post, namely two videos that was recommended to me by Eric Sandosham. (If you call yourself an Analytics Professional and wants to lead a team that value-adds to your employer, I strongly recommend that you check out his Medium.) If you are a fan of geopolitics discussion, these two videos might actually interest you too!

Ok as always, it is good to set some definitions here first before we continue the discussion on Critical Thinking and First Principles, and their relationship.

Critical Thinking

According to Wikipedia,

"Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation. ...

The application of critical thinking includes self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective habits of the mind."

So if I were to summarize or paraphrase it,

"Critical Thinking is about self-directed analysis of facts, knowledge and information and forming a judgment."

What About First Principles?

Again from Wikipedia,

"First principles thinking" consists of decomposing things down to the fundamental axioms in the given arena, before reasoning up by asking which ones are relevant to the question at hand, then cross referencing conclusions based on chosen axioms and making sure conclusions do not violate any fundamental laws.

My own summary is,

"Decomposition of things down to its basic element, before reason and cross reference, reaching a conclusion that does not violate any other fundamental law, be it nature, psychology, etc."

So the question is what is the relationship between Critical Thinking and First Principles Thinking?

Is Critical Thinking = First Principles Thinking?

On the face value of "Critical Thinking", it seems like the keyword is "analysis", followed by an output which is a judgment (not in the sense of statutes and laws).

Whereas for "First Principles Thinking", the keyword is "decomposition", followed by an output which is a conclusion, that has been cross-referenced. (Should it not be equivocal?)

If one were to check out the dictionary, surprise surprise, conclusion and judgment is very similar!

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Judgment is the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing.

Conclusion is a reasoned judgment.

This concludes that both outcomes are similar. And the difference then is the "processing/procedures" to get to it. And there is a difference then because one "analyse" the other is "decomposition". This I will argue they are two different things processing with "decomposition" being part of the "analysis" process.

Solving A Challenge

Let us go back to a point when you are trying to solve a problem. The first step is to get to the root cause of the challenge, followed by thinking (design and research) of a suitable solution. Getting to the root cause, means there is a need for sense-making (domain knowledge), and sense-making will require one to use the domain knowledge to decompose the problem down to its fundamental processes and how they come together. Through this step, then we can reach the root cause faster.

What this translates into is that First Principles Thinking is the first step, breaking the problem down to its fundamental processes and procedures, before running Critical Thinking (or analysis) on top to determine the likely root cause. This is the first half of solving a challenge, and for the second half, both Critical Thinking and Design Thinking will come in place to provide a feasible solution to the challenge.

Assessing Circumstances

We do not use Critical Thinking for solving problems alone. We also analyze to determine how to optimize our lives, for instance learning more about where different countries are heading or something closer, the industry we are crafting our career in, where is it headed as we can make a more informed decision on the skills, knowledge and proficient level we need to achieve to stay ahead. Again, one cannot run away from starting off with First Principles Thinking, the decomposition into the fundamentals of what the industry or country is working on or strongly believe in. And after the First Principles Thinking, I will argue, follow by Logical Thinking to determine how the industry will develop or the countries relationship will pan out.

Conclusion

Critical Thinking and First Principles Thinking are definitely not the same and based on the above discussion, it seems like First Principles Thinking is part of Critical Thinking (so does this mean there is a hierarchy/scaffold?). And for Critical Thinking to continue, we have to deploy First Principles Thinking as a first step. If that is the case, let me end this conclusion with a conclusion, how can we improve our First Principles Thinking then? Definitely a topic for a later post. :)

Here are the two videos that I came across recently discussion on Geopolitics. One is Kishore Mahbubani with Gita Wirjawan.

This is one of the best panel discussion I have come across on geopolitics featuring my favorite political scientist, John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, a renowed economist that has advised many politicians.

Will love to hear your thoughts on the videos above and my discussion. Do share them with me on LinkedIn or my newsletter!

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