Pros and cons table
Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning conductor and co-author of the American Declaration of Independence, was an early practitioner. In 1772, he wrote:
- When difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under consideration, all the reasons pro and con are not present to the mind at the same time … To get over this, my way is to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns; writing over the one “Pro”, and the other “Con”. Then … I put down under the different heads short hints of the different motives … for and against the measure … I endeavour to estimate their respective weights; where I find one on each side that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason pro equal to two reasons con, I strike out three … and thus proceeding I find at length where the balance lies … And, though the weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of algebraic quantities, yet when each is thus considered, separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to take a rash step.
