Through this essay, Coriolanus is doing exactly what Dr. Gaul wants him to do: considering these Enlightenment ideas and using them to ultimately justify the Capitol’s existence. Though the novel never fully answers what humans are like when there are no laws—the Hunger Games are contrived, not an actual natural state of humanity—through this exercise, Dr. Gaul encourages Coriolanus to decide that humans are naturally violent. Therefore, according to this line of thinking, they deserve to be subjugated.