Christine Overall

This paper explores, from a feminist perspective, the justification of major surgical reshaping of the body. I define “transracialism” as the use of surgery to assist individuals to “cross” from being a member of one race to being a member of another. If transsexualism, involving the use of surgery to assist individuals to “cross” from female to male or from male to female, is morally acceptable, and if providing the medical and social resources to enable sex crossing is not morally problematic, then transracialism should be morally acceptable, and providing medical and social resources to facilitate race crossing is not necessarily morallyproblematic. To explore this idea, I present and evaluate eight possible arguments that might be given against accepting transracialism, and I show that each of them is unsuccessful.

: Public toilets are a key part of the urban environment. This paper examines and evaluates the pervasive sex segregation, throughout North America, of public toilets. The issue is situated within a larger context—the design and management of the urban environment; larger assumptions about sexuality, reproduction, and privacy that govern that environment; and continuing compulsory sex identification and segregation which still define key areas of "public" space. I examine seven groups of arguments in favor of sex segregation, arguing that all of them are inadequate. I then present reasons showing why ending the sex segregation of public toilets is justified

Heterosexuality, which I define as a romantic and sexual orientation toward persons not of one's own sex, is apparently a very general, though not entirely universal, characteristic of the human condition. In fact, it is so ubiquitous a part of human interactions and relations as to be almost invisible, and so natural-seeming as to appear unquestionable. Indeed, the 1970 edition of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘heterosexual’ as ‘pertaining to or characterized by the normal relation of the sexes.’

Because of the two crucial problems just described, it is concluded that Stace's theory of the nature of mystical experience is inadequate. An alternative approach is outlined, which obviates the weaknesses in Stace's theory by combining C. J. Ducasse's distinction between connate and alien accusatives, with the suggestion by Gilbert Ryle and David Hamlyn that experiencing is like the exercise of a skill. Mystical experience, it is then proposed, is the exercise of the difficult yet rewarding acquired skill of experiencing unitively. ;The second problem concerns the relation between the mystical experience and the interpretation made of it by the mystic. On this topic Stace is found to support two distinct positions: first, that experience or the given in general is independent of mental activity, and that mystical experience is pure, that is, uninterpreted; second, that pure experience is "psychologically impossible," and that no uninterpreted mystical experiences occur. Without passing judgment upon the issue of "psychological impossibility," an argument is here advanced to show that all mystical experiences reflect the specific context in which they occur, and hence that, in Stace's sense, all such experiences are "impure." ;In the evaluation of Stace's views about the nature of mystical experience, two main problems emerge. The first of these concerns the relation between the mystical experience and its object. Stace contends that mystical experience is identical with its object, the "Universal Self." However, his arguments for this belief, founded upon his general theory of experience and upon his examination of reports of mystical experiences, are demonstrated to be unsuccessful. ;The philosophical context of Stace's views on mystical experience includes, it is shown, Stace's many studies of mysticism in addition to his major survey of the field, Mysticism and Philosophy. It also embraces his more general writings about the concept of the given, the structure of human knowledge, and what Stace calls "phenomenalist metaphysics." ;A foundational element of Walter Terence Stace's pioneer work in the philosophy of mysticism is his theory of the nature of mystical experience. Accordingly, this thesis has two purposes: to outline the context of Stace's views on mystical experience; and to evaluate Stace's views on the nature of mystical experience