The art of thinking · Glossary
Philosophy, reasoning and mental models glossary
Definitions of the methods of thinking and reasoning and where they come from — Aristotle’s first principles and Socrates’ questioning, the axiomatic method, analysis and synthesis, Descartes’ method, first principles thinking and its adaptations in physics, strategy and engineering (first-principles calculations, John Boyd’s destruction and creation, the contrast with reasoning by analogy), and mental models as thinking tools up to Charlie Munger’s latticework. Each entry names its origin and shows what the method looks like in practice; none of them is a norm or a requirement.
Philosophy and logic
First principle (philosophy)
In philosophy and logic, a first principle is a basic proposition or assumption that is not deduced from any other proposition within a system of reasoning and from which further knowledge is derived; Aristotle called such starting points archai.
Thinking models · Philosophy
Definition and examplesSocratic questioning
In philosophy and education, Socratic questioning is a disciplined way of asking systematic questions to examine the definitions, assumptions, evidence and implications behind a claim, named after the Athenian philosopher Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) as portrayed in Plato’s dialogues.
Thinking models · Philosophy · Problem solving
Definition and examplesAxiomatic method
German: axiomatische Methode
In mathematics and logic, the axiomatic method builds a body of knowledge from a small set of explicitly stated definitions and axioms and derives every further statement from them by proof; Euclid’s Elements (c. 300 BCE) is its classic model and David Hilbert’s Foundations of Geometry (1899) its modern, formal form.
Thinking models · Mathematics
Definition and examplesAnalysis and synthesis (method)
German: Analyse und Synthese
In the history of scientific method, analysis and synthesis is the two-way procedure of resolving a problem or phenomenon into its simpler parts and causes (analysis, resolution) and then reasoning back from them to the whole (synthesis, composition); it runs from Greek geometry, as described by Pappus of Alexandria, through Galileo to Newton.
Thinking models · Philosophy · Engineering
Definition and examplesCartesian method
In philosophy, the Cartesian method is the procedure René Descartes set out in his Discourse on the Method (1637): accept nothing as true that is not clearly and distinctly known, divide each difficulty into as many parts as needed, reason in order from the simplest to the most complex, and review everything so that nothing is left out.
Thinking models · Philosophy
Definition and examples
First principles thinking and its adaptations
First principles thinking
In problem solving, first principles thinking is the practice of breaking a problem down into the basic facts or assumptions that cannot be reduced any further and reasoning upward from them to a solution, instead of reasoning by analogy with existing solutions or from convention.
Thinking models · Problem solving
Definition and examplesFirst-principles calculation
In physics, chemistry and materials science, a first-principles (ab initio) calculation predicts properties of atoms, molecules or materials directly from the fundamental laws of physics — in practice quantum mechanics — without parameters fitted to experimental data for the system being studied.
Thinking models · Engineering · Physics
Definition and examplesDestruction and creation (John Boyd)
In strategic theory, destruction and creation is the mental cycle described by US Air Force Colonel John R. Boyd in his essay of that name (September 3, 1976): existing concepts are broken apart into their constituents (destructive deduction) and the pieces are recombined into a new concept that matches reality better (creative induction).
Thinking models · Strategy · Problem solving
Definition and examplesReasoning by analogy
German: Analogieschluss
In logic and problem solving, reasoning by analogy draws a conclusion about one case from its similarity to another, known case — for example, designing or documenting a new product the way comparable products have been designed or documented.
Thinking models · Philosophy · Problem solving
Definition and examples
Mental models as thinking tools
Mental model (thinking tool)
German: Denkmodell
In the decision-making literature, a mental model is a named, reusable thinking tool — such as first principles thinking, inversion or second-order thinking — that a person applies to understand a problem and decide, as distinct from the cognitive-science sense of a person's internal representation of how something works.
Thinking models · Problem solving
Definition and examplesLatticework of mental models
In the decision-making literature, a latticework of mental models is Charlie Munger’s image for a broad set of models from many disciplines that a person combines to understand problems, instead of relying on the models of a single discipline; he set it out in his talk “A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom” at the USC Marshall School of Business on April 14, 1994.
Thinking models · Problem solving
Definition and examples
How to read this pool
Entries, context cards and transitional topics
The art of thinking explains ways of thinking — where a method comes from, what it asks of you and how it was adapted later. You meet four kinds of content here, each with its own job:
- Glossary entry
- Defines one concept or method of thinking: its origin, an example and how it relates to neighboring ideas. “X vs. Y” sections set two methods side by side.
- Context card of the art of thinking
- A short, self-contained answer to one question about a way of thinking — its lineage, its steps, its limits. These cards are listed on The art of thinking only.
- Transitional topicBridges both pools
- A context card that bridges both pools: it shows how a way of thinking was adapted into documentation, analysis or quality practice. It sits with the reference context cards and is marked as transitional wherever it appears.
- Reference entry or context card
- Belongs to the Glossary & Norms Space on regulation, norms and engineering. Entries here link to one only where a method is also an established tool of documentation or quality work, such as the five whys or a user’s mental model.
Definitions follow the cited philosophical and historical sources — primary texts, their standard translations and reference works such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — and, for cognitive psychology, the published research and its reviews, with the state of the evidence named in each entry. They are paraphrased, not quoted, unless a passage is marked as a quotation, and sayings that cannot be traced to a source stay attributed. Examples, comparisons and the notes on how a method was adapted are editorial commentary by knowledge.aitechdoc.world. None of these entries is a norm, a standard or a legal requirement, and applying one never replaces a method that a standard or a law requires.