Consequentialism asks what an act produces; deontology asks what a rule requires; virtue ethics asks who is doing the acting. Here the action stays exactly the same — you only change facts about the person performing it. Watch which theory shrugs and which one changes its mind. That difference is the whole of Section 1.
1 · Pick the act (it will not change)
The act, on a strict act-description
2 · Now change the hidden facts
AWhy she did itmotive
BWhat she sawperception
CWhether she is like thisstability
3 · Three verdicts on one act
Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue ethics
Aristotle’s three conditions
Aristotle sets these out at 1105a30–33: to act virtuously the agent must know what she is doing, choose the act for its own sake, and act from a firm and unchanging character. The first is why perception matters, the second is why motive is internal to the act’s description, and the third is why a single good deed is not yet a hexis.
Which theory reacted to which fact?
Theory
A motive
B perception
C stability
Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue ethics
changes the verdict changes it indirectly makes no difference at all The highlighted column is the fact you changed last. Virtue ethics is the only row that is solid all the way across — which is the claim of Section 1 in one line.