Bernard Williams: 3 ideas worth knowing

3 ideas from Bernard Williams, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

Two equally reckless drivers can face wildly different moral judgment
Bernard Williams and Thomas Nagel pointed out that a drunk driver who kills a pedestrian is judged far more harshly than an equally drunk driver who happens to make it home safe, e…
— Bernard Williams & Thomas Nagel, Moral Luck
Kill one innocent man to save nineteen — utilitarianism says just do the math
In Bernard Williams's 'Jim and the Indians' case, a captor offers Jim a deal: shoot one bound man himself, or watch all twenty die. Utilitarianism calls the answer obvious — shoot …
— Bernard Williams (with J. J. C. Smart), Utilitarianism: For and Against
Save your drowning wife because you love her, not because ethics allowed it
Bernard Williams imagined a man who can save only one of two drowning people, one a stranger and one his wife. If he pauses to check that impartial morality permits preferring his …
— Bernard Williams, Persons, Character and Morality, in Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers 1973-1980

Five ideas worth knowing, every week