Revolutionizing Understanding of Human Behavior

Leon Petrażycki revolutionized how we understand human behavior over a century ago.

He discovered that our actions aren't driven by pleasure or pain like everyone believed,

but by emotions he called impulses. Think about hunger - it's not just discomfort,

it's a specific drive pushing you to eat. He identified a special type of

emotion called ethical emotions that create our sense of duty. These feel like commands from a

higher authority, which is why ancient people thought gods were speaking to them.

But here's the twist - it's all happening in your mind. Petrażycki proved that moral obligations

and legal rights aren't real objects in the world, they're projections of our emotional