William Desmond (philosopher)

William Desmond
William Desmond
Born	1951 (age 74–75); Cork, Ireland
Awards	Cardinal Mercier Prize (1995); J.N. Findlay Award of the Metaphysical Society of America (1997, 2019);
Academic background
Alma mater	Pennsylvania State University (PhD)
Thesis	The World as Image and Original (1978)
Doctoral advisor	Carl G. Vaught
Other advisors	Donald Phillip Verene, Rio Preisner
Academic work
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School or tradition	Continental philosophy; Revival of German idealism;
Institutions	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Villanova University;
Main interests	Metaphysics; philosophy of art; ethics; religion; history of philosophy;
Notable ideas	Metaxology; Intimate strangeness of Being; Intimate universal; Ethos;

William James Desmond (born January 7, 1951) is an Irish philosopher who has written on ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and religion. Desmond earned his B.A. and M.A. from University College, Cork, in 1972 and 1974; Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1978.

A former president of the Hegel Society of America (1990–1992) and the Metaphysical Society of America (1995), Desmond is professor of philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and also at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He is a past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. In his trilogy, Being and The Between, Ethics and The Between, and God and The Between, Desmond works out an entirely new and complete metaphysical/ontological philosophical system based on what he calls the potencies of being and the senses of being. His most original contribution in his metaphysics is the notion of the "metaxological". Desmond's program consists mainly in exploring the senses in which he claims that modernity has devalued being and what "to be" and "the good" might mean.