Bernard Williams' name is often raised in connection with a well$-$known thought experiment. It features a pair of unfortunates who are drowning after a shipwreck. Luckily for one of the unfortunates, the sole potential rescuer$-$who of course can only save one person$-$is her husband, while her unlucky drowning counterpart has no relation to this potential rescuer at all.

Assuming that their marriage is in good working order, she can quite naturally count on being rescued, since loving husbands tend to act in order to Ooreserve the lives of their spouses. Indeed, we can imagine her panic subsiding as she treads water, safe in the knowledge that she will surely be rescued first.