1886 – 1967
Walter Terence Stace (1886–1967) was a British empiricist philosopher who spent much of his career at Princeton University. He is best known for his work on mysticism, arguing that mystical experience across traditions shares a common phenomenological core, and for his compatibilist approach to free will and determinism.
Developed influential typology of mystical experience distinguishing extrovertive and introvertive mysticism
Argued for a universal 'perennial philosophy' core across religious traditions in Mysticism and Philosophy (1960)
Defended compatibilism between free will and causal determinism
Authored The Philosophy of Hegel (1924), one of the first major English-language studies of Hegel
Argued that the subject-object distinction dissolves in genuine mystical experience