One of the most pressing philosophical problems in early modern Europe concerned how the soul and body could form a unity, or, as many understood it, how these two substances could act upon each other. It was widely believed that there were three (and only three) hypotheses regarding the union of soul and body: (1) physical influence, (2) occasionalism, and (3) pre-established harmony. However, in 1763, a fourth hypothesis was put forward by the French thinker Andre Pierre Le Guay de Premontval (1716-1764). Premontval’s hypothesis, given the grand name of “psychocracy” (i.e. the dominion or the rule of the soul), held that there was a real influence between soul and body, but that this was an immaterial kind of influence as opposed to the physical kind that had been entertained heretofore. Premontval’s hypothesis is the focus of this paper. I shall begin by sketching out the details of Premontval’s hypothesis (section 1), then proceed to consider its claims to constitute a true fourth hypothesis distinct from the other three (section 2), before closing by briefly considering two objections and the responses either that Premontval himself made or that may be made on his behalf (section 3).

中文翻译：

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早期现代心身问题的“第四假设”

在现代欧洲早期，最紧迫的哲学问题之一是灵魂与身体如何形成统一体，或者，正如许多人所理解的那样，这两种物质如何相互作用。人们普遍认为，关于灵魂与身体的结合存在三个（仅有三个）假设：（1）身体影响，（2）偶然主义和（3）预先建立的和谐。然而，在1763年，法国思想家安德烈·皮埃尔·勒瓜·德·普雷蒙瓦尔（1716-1764）提出了第四个假设。Premontval的假说被赋予了“精神统治”的盛名（即统治或灵魂统治），认为灵魂与身体之间存在着真正的影响力，但这是一种非物质的影响力，而不是物理的影响力迄今为止一直很有趣。Premontval的假设是本文的重点。