| Starting question | What kind of person would act well here, and what trait would the action express? | What duty or principle should bind the action regardless of convenience or expected benefit? | Virtue ethics starts with formed character; duty ethics starts with obligation. |
| Moral focus | Attention falls on virtues such as courage, honesty, generosity, patience, justice, or practical wisdom. | Attention falls on the rule, maxim, right, promise, respect, or constraint that should govern the action. | One asks what the action reveals about character; the other asks whether the action can be justified as a duty. |
| Hard case | A hard case asks which virtue fits the situation and whether apparent virtue has become excess or deficiency. | A hard case asks which duty has priority and whether an exception would undermine the principle. | Both can handle conflict, but they name the conflict differently. |
| Example: telling a painful truth | The question is whether honesty, kindness, timing, and practical wisdom are being held together well. | The question is whether truthfulness, respect, and the duty not to manipulate another person bind the case. | The same example becomes a character test on one side and a principle test on the other. |
| Common mistake | Do not reduce virtue ethics to acting from personality or instinct. | Do not reduce duty ethics to obeying rules without judgment. | Both are more demanding than their simplest classroom caricatures. |
