6 - Conclusion: Dignity and Its Outsiders

Summary

This chapter presents the book’s conclusions. Drawing together the threads of the three mini-studies, the chapter puts forward an account of human dignity that calls into question the conventional distinction between ‘status dignity’ and ‘intrinsic dignity’, and highlights the status-based character of dignity, viewed from the standpoint of less privileged people. Regarding the book’s title, it is recalled that this is a reference to the stare often commented upon by viewers of one of the photographs discussed in Chapter 3. Trucanini’s stare may be taken to suggest both the enigma of dignity and the dignity that stems from the ultimate inaccessibility to others of private experience and thoughts.