Critical Thinking

5 Whys and First Principles are both examples of critical thinking but differ in how they approach the problem. 5 Whys is top down; starting with the observed result and trying to discover the underlying cause. On the other hand, the First Principles approach builds from basic truths to discover new solutions.

Knowledge Identification and recall of information 

Comprehension Organization and selection of facts and ideas

Application Use of facts, rules and principles 

Analysis Separating a whole into component parts

Synthesis Combining ideas to form a new whole

Evaluation Developing opinions, judgments or decisions