You’re overloading the term “from first principles” and I’m not sure it’s helpful. Normally, the term implies going away from the empirical level of abstraction, but it sounds like you’re going towards the empirical level.
Possibly. I mean deriving from highly trusted knowledge (like newtons laws, probability theory) instead of leaning on derived knowledge for which you have not done the derivation.
You’re right it means going away from empirical/statistical knowledge to modelling the specific underlying process. Don’t know if I’d call that more abstract or less abstract or what.
I think I’m using it how we used it in engineering school. If it becomes confusing, we can come up with a better phrase.
You’re overloading the term “from first principles” and I’m not sure it’s helpful. Normally, the term implies going away from the empirical level of abstraction, but it sounds like you’re going towards the empirical level.
Possibly. I mean deriving from highly trusted knowledge (like newtons laws, probability theory) instead of leaning on derived knowledge for which you have not done the derivation.
You’re right it means going away from empirical/statistical knowledge to modelling the specific underlying process. Don’t know if I’d call that more abstract or less abstract or what.
I think I’m using it how we used it in engineering school. If it becomes confusing, we can come up with a better phrase.
If it’s already engineering jargon, I say ignore my complaint. Engineering jargon trumps philosophy jargon.