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In the context of the sources, first principles thinking is a process of identifying and examining the fundamental assumptions, interaction metaphors, and "metaphysical primes" that organize our sensemaking [1, 2]. Rather than relying on habitual scripts or "cultural malware," this mode of thinking involves a direct realization of the simple rules and patterns that generate complex reality [3, 4].

1. Releasing Complexity to Fundamental Principles

First principles thinking in this framework is described as "releasing complexity down to fundamental principles" rather than reducing things to static parts [5].

Simple Generative Rules: It recognizes that immense complexity—whether in nature or the built environment—is often produced by a finite set of simple rules or principles [6].
Pure Abstractions: This involves identifying "pure abstractions," which are not just mental ideas but are perceived as real features of the world that the mind "directly enters" [7, 8].
Intuitive Knowing: Recomposing our way of being in the world depends on identifying and re-imagining reality from first principles of intuitive knowing [1].

2. Identifying Metaphysical Primes

A core aspect of this thinking is recognizing the metaphysical primes—such as time, space, and causality—that underlie all representational thought and human reasoning [2].

Interaction Metaphors: We often make sense of the world through metaphors (e.g., "we are in nature" like candy in a box). First principles thinking requires examining these metaphors to see if they are adequate and applicable to our actual experience [1, 9].
Beginner's Mind: To access first principles, one must adopt a "naive beginner's mind" to ask fundamental questions about how the body and world really work before layers of theory are added [10, 11].

3. Sense-Breaking and Pragmatic Imagination

First principles thinking is often a response to a "sensemaking crisis." It functions through a methodology of "sense-breaking" to exit stable compositions of previous thought [12, 13].

Speculative Ontology: Following Alfred North Whitehead, this involves using a freely acting imaginative mind to frame a coherent system of ideas through which every element of experience can be interpreted [14].
The Method of Discovery: This "true method of discovery" is likened to an airplane flight: it starts with grounded observations, makes a flight into imaginative generalization, and lands for renewed observation through rational interpretation [14].

4. Evaluative Reasonableness vs. Rational Judgment

Unlike standard "judgmental rationalism," which makes sharp cuts between right and wrong, first principles thinking often employs evaluative reasonableness [15, 16].

Aesthetic Judgment: It draws on the faculty of aesthetic judgment to evaluate experiences based on how we are in relation to them, rather than purely quantifying them [17].
Coherence and Life: For example, architect Christopher Alexander used these principles to determine what creates "living structure" or makes a person feel "more alive," looking for patterns like "repeating centers" [18, 19].

Ultimately, first principles thinking is the ability to "touch bottom" together by peeling back conditioned narratives to reveal the internal metabolic signatures and rules that truly direct our activities in the world [20, 21].