"The Secret Commonwealth is a guide to fairies, doppelgängers, wraiths, and other beings that its author Robert Kirk, an unusually inquisitive seventeenth-century Scottish minister, identifies as being ?of a middle nature betwixt man and angel.? Circulated in manuscript by its author, whose religious and scientific interests drew him at some genuine personal risk to investigate the hidden realities of the spiritual world, this short work was first published by Sir Walter Scott and then again in the late nineteenth century in an edition prepared by the famous collector of fairy tales, Andrew Lang, and dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson. Nonetheless, Kirk’s work, which is a fine example of English prose, an important document in the history of ideas, and an enchanting introduction to fairy lore has remained a rarity"--Publisher description.

This new edition in modern English includes a detailed commentary. Comparisons are made between the ancient rites and powers of fairy tradition and second sight, and those of shamanism, Native American tradition, Celtic myth and legend, and perennial magical arts.

Robert Kirk attempts to answer the problem of consciousness that derives from the notorious gap between our knowledge of ourselves as matter and our subjective knowledge of what we experience.

By definition zombies would be physically and behaviourally just like us, but not conscious. This currently very influential idea is a threat to all forms of physicalism, and has led some philosophers to give up physicalism and become dualists. It has also beguiled many physicalists, who feel forced to defend increasingly convoluted explanations of why the conceivability of zombies is compatible with their impossibility. Robert Kirk argues that the zombie idea depends on an incoherent view of the nature of phenomenal consciousness. His book has two main aims. One is to demolish the zombie idea once and for all. There are plenty of objections to it in the literature, but they lack intuitive appeal. He offers a striking new argument which reveals fundamental confusions in the implied conception of consciousness. His other main contribution is to develop a fresh and original approach to the true nature of phenomenal consciousness. Kirk argues that a necessary condition is a "basic package" of capacities. An important component of his argument is that the necessary cognitive capacities are not as sophisticated as is often assumed. By focusing on humbler creatures than ourselves he avoids some of the distracting complications of our sophisticated forms of cognition. The basic package does not seem to be sufficient for phenomenal consciousness. What is also needed is "direct activity"--a special feature of the way the events which constitute incoming perceptual information affect the system. This is an integrated process, to be conceived of holistically, and contrasts sharply with what is often called the "availability" or "poisedness" of perceptual information. This original, penetrating, and highly readable book will be of interest to all who have a serious concern with the nature of consciousness: not only professional philosophers and students, but also many psychologists and neuroscientists.

Our thoughts about the world are clearly influenced by such things as point of view, temperament, past experience and culture. However, some thinkers go much further and argue that everything that exists depends on us, arguing that 'even reality is relative'. Can we accept such a claim in the face of events such as floods and other natural disasters or events seemingly beyond our control? 'Realists' argue that reality is independent of out thinking. 'Relativists' disagree, arguing that what there is depends on our point of view. Which is right? Robert Kirk provides a crystal clear account of this debate from the Greek philosophers to Wittgenstein and Rorty. Along the way, he unpacks some of the more complicated issues surrounding ideas of objectivity, subjectivity, pragmatism and realism essential for those beginning any study of philosphy.

ROBERT KIRK (KIRKWOOD), an enlisted man, served with the 42nd and 77th Highland Regiments in North America. He covered 5000 miles by foot, canoe, whaleboat, and transport ship. He was wounded, captured by Shawnees, and nearly scalped, but he lived to write his memoirs, which are published here for the first time since 1775. This book constitutes a superb team effort with paintings by renowned artist, Robert Griffing; an excellent and insightful introduction by best-selling British historian, Stephen Brumwell; and annotations, biographical notes, and essays by historians, Lt. Col. Ian McCulloch and Timothy Todish.

Armed with razor-sharp teeth and capable of drinking many times its volume of blood, the leech is an unlikely cure for ill health. Yet that is exactly the role this worm-like parasite has played in both Western and Eastern medicine throughout history. In this book, Robert G. W. Kirk and Neil Pemberton explore how the leech surfaces in radically different spheres. The ancients used them in humeral medicine to bring the four humors of the body—blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile—back into balance. Today, leeches are used in plastic and reconstructive surgery to help reattach severed limbs and remove pools of blood before it kills tissue. Leeches have also been used in a nineteenth-century meteorological barometer and a twentieth-century biomedical tool that helped win a Nobel Prize. Kirk and Pemberton also reveal the dark side of leeches as they are portrayed in fiction, film, and popular culture. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to a video game player’s nemesis, the leech is used to represent the fears of science run amok. Leech shines new light on one of humanity’s most enduring and unlikely companions.