The loved one or the stranger
On the axis: Partiality · the rescue
Two lives are in peril and only one can be saved; if all count equally, that one of the two is someone I love should make no difference: is the bond a moral reason to save one's own first, or a preference morality requires us to overcome?
You are walking alone along a lake on a deserted afternoon. Suddenly two people fall into the water almost at the same moment, a few meters apart, thrashing and screaming. One of them is someone you love deeply; the other is a stranger you have never seen. The current is already pulling them apart and you grasp in a flash that you will only have time to reach one. There is no one else, no help in sight, and every second counts. You dive in. Toward whom do you swim?
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Anchors: Godwin · Bernard Williams
leads to: Criterion of right action (Saving a loved one rather than a stranger)