My thesis is an attempt to develop a naturalistic account of mental representation based on the notion of causation. The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part (chapters II and III) develops an understanding of naturalization. According to my proposal, naturalization is a two-step process: in the first step a set of conditions is specified which are thought to be the essential aspects of the notion under study and in the second step a naturalistic system is proposed which is claimed to satisfy these conditions. In accordance with this understanding of naturalization, the second part (chapters IV and V) of the thesis sets out the conditions which a successful naturalization of mental representation has to satisfy and then develops a new naturalistic account of mental representation based on the causal connections between environmental properties and the brain.

The purpose of the present study is to signify the explanatory value of the Meno on the coherence as well as the disparateness of the Plato&rsquo / s early and middle dialogues. Indeed, the Meno exposes the transition on the content and form of these dialogues. The first part of the dialogue resembles the Socrates&rsquo / way of investigation, the so-called Elenchus, whereas Plato presents his own philosophical project in the second part of the dialogue. Three fundamental elements of Plato&rsquo / s middle dialogues explicitly arise for the very first time in the Meno, namely / the recollection, the hypothetical method and reasoning out the explanation. Therefore, the connexion of the early and middle dialogues can be understood better if the structure of the Meno is analyzed properly. In other words, the Meno is the keystone dialogue which enables the readers of Plato to sense the development in Socratic-Platonic philosophy.

The purpose of the present study is to assess the explanatory value of the concept of the World Soul in the cosmological account of Plato&rsquo / s Timaeus. The World Soul plays a crucial role in the account of the world of Becoming in the Timaeus and in Plato&rsquo / s philosophy of science. The World Soul explains why there is motion at all in the universe and sustains the regularity and uniformity of the motion of the celestial objects. Its constitution and the way it is generated by the Demiurge endow it an intermediary status between the world of Being and the world of Becoming. Through this status the World Soul facilitates the applicability of the items of the former world (Forms and Numbers) in the explanation of the latter, hence makes natural science possible. The appreciation of the place of the World Soul in the natural philosophy of Plato leads us to a better place to view Plato&rsquo / s contribution to ancient natural philosophy and science.