Epilogue

The epilogue pulls together the arguments from the prior chapters by analyzing a scenario involving an informant who engages in “otherwise illegal activity” on behalf of the police. The epilogue then revisits the overlapping conceptions of human dignity that were introduced earlier, reaching the following conclusion: a broadly defined ideal theory of justice in the liberal tradition provides constraints regarding how the state (especially the police) may fulfill its reciprocal duties in society; one of those constraints is a commitment to a conception of persons that includes human dignity. By concluding the book in this way, the goal is to emphasize liberalism’s commitment to a conception of persons that is based upon multiple foundational stances. This helps show how liberal personhood likewise constrains the police’s power from multiple foundational stances. The hope is that, by following this path, there has been something of a retrieval of dignity in policing.