The ethical and theological implications of naturalist theories of mind developed in contemporary philosophy

This study deals with the problem of the nature of human being. Today, this subject is analyzed under the title of mind-body problem in philosophy of mind and is discussed around the question "What is the mind?". In this context, this study examines the answers given in contemporary philosophy to the question of what mind is and draws attention to the problems arising from naturalism that pervades these answers. In addition, it aims to revise naturalism by referring to the concept of plasticity in overcoming the problems arising from naturalism and by presenting a Chomskyan version of naturalism. For this purpose, in the first part of the study, the historical process that revealed naturalism; the ideal of scientism and reductionism are mentioned. In order to introduce the characteristics of the naturalist approach, six different theories of mind developed in contemporary philosophy are examined. In the second part, the implications of the naturalist core of these theories of mind are considered. Due to some problems that arise in view of of the ethical and theological exposition of these implications, "Can a theist be a naturalist?" comes out to be a significant question that needs an urgent answer. Specific to this question, the mentioned problems are discussed around the subject of free will. Plasticity and Chomskyan naturalism the extensions they bring to naturalism are examined as an alternative perspective to the reductionist and deterministic forms of naturalism. Thus, a new account of naturalism is proposed. With this proposal, it is concluded that there is no necessary conflict between theism and naturalism and there are some forms of naturalism which are not reductionist and are non-deterministic. It is expected that this result will contribute ethically and theologically to the study of the mind around the subject of free will.