Are You a Good Friend?

What makes a person a good friend? There is no way of answering that question in the abstract. A good friend is always a good friend of someone, of some kind, in some context. People of very different kinds can all be good friends, within their particular friendships; that you are a good friend of one kind can prevent you from being a good friend of another kind; and describing someone as a good friend carries little explanatory or predictive power. Being a good friend is not a trait of character and is hence not a virtue.