William James Desmond (born January 7, 1951)[1] is an Irish philosopher who has written on ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and religion.

A former president of the Hegel Society of America (1990–1992) and the Metaphysical Society of America (1995),[2] Desmond is professor of philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy[3] at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and also at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Simultaneously, we receive the hospitality of the ethos through what Desmond calls the "agapeic origin of the good".

The potencies are not a program to follow; they simply are all together the powers from which ethical selvings, expressed through particular senses of being, take their endowment.

"Metaxological vigilance" shows a clearer picture of the ethos than do any views that restrict philosophical considerations to the other senses of being and potencies.