Walter Stace

Walter Terence Stace was a British-born philosopher who served for many years in the Ceylon Civil Service before teaching at Princeton University. He wrote on Greek philosophy and Hegel, but is best known for Mysticism and Philosophy, which argued that mystics across religious traditions report a common core of experience, above all an undifferentiated unity, which they then interpret in the vocabulary of their own faith. This common-core thesis became the main target of constructivist critics such as Steven Katz.

Key ideas

• Mystics in every tradition report a common core of experience.
• Experience and interpretation can be separated; differences among mystics lie mainly in interpretation.
• Introvertive mysticism culminates in an undifferentiated unity beyond all multiplicity.
• Mystical experience is paradoxical when described in ordinary logical terms.

Major works

• A Critical History of Greek Philosophy (1920)
• The Philosophy of Hegel (1924)
• Mysticism and Philosophy (1960)
• The Teachings of the Mystics (1960)

In the conversation

• Question Does a Carmelite’s prayer of union and a Zen kenshō report the same experience? Aiko Tanabe · 6 replies