Introduction

"Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: A mind map" is an attempt to present a summary of Kant's first Critique in the form of a mind map. It is not supposed to be a substitute for reading Kant's book! It is rather intended to act as a mnemonic device and reference framework for navigating Kant's architectonic system and pre-supposes a familiarity with it. The mind map is mostly in English, with the addition of some essential terminology in German. It is provided as two files. Under the folder mind_map, the original mind map may be found. This file can be used for easy navigation and for possible modifications. Under the folder doc, a pdf version of the mind map may be found. This is a static document, where each page contains the map with a single node expanded. The last page contains the whole map, fully expanded.

Contributions to this project are welcome. However, note that this mind map is the result of autonomous and completely independent work and I intend to keep it this way. See below for details on contributing and producing derivatives.

If you are not familiar with the jargon of coders and are only interested in downloading the mind map, then just click on the green "Code" button and select "Download ZIP".

Sources used

For creating the mind map, the following English translation of Kant's first Critique was used:

@book{kant_critique_of_pure_reason_1998,
	title = {Critique of pure reason},
	author = {Kant, Immanuel},
	translator = {Guyer, Paul and Wood, Allen W},
	publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
	year = {1998}
}

This is a very good scholarly work that contains both of the standard editions of Kant's first Critique (A and B) and has an extensive introduction. In addition, Max Müller's seminal translation was also used, which probably still remains unsurpassed, as far as the text itself is concerned:

@book{kant_critique_of_pure_reason_1922,
	title = {Critique of pure reason},
	author = {Kant, Immanuel},
	translator = {Müller, F. Max},
	publisher = {Macmillan},
	year = {1922},
	edition = {2nd revised edition}
}

For the German original text, the following book was consulted:

@book{kant_kritik_der_reinen_vernunft_1956,
	title = {Kritik der reinen Vernunft},
	author = {Kant, Immanuel},
	publisher = {Felix Meiner},	
	year = {1956}
}

Corrections and extensions

The goal was to make the mind map as complete and close to the original as possible, without introducing any kind of interpretations. On the other hand, no pretention of a complete and full grasp of Kant's system is made here. More specifically, the part on the transcedental deduction (indeed one of the hardest parts of the book) probably requires significant changes and additions. Moreover, a complete presentation of Kant's system would require expanding the map with material from his two other Critiques, especially from the Critique of the Power of Judgement (Kritik der Urteilskraft), which, in my opinion, represents the culmination and highest point of Kant's thought. However, such extensions are not in my immediate plans. See below if you want to contribute. Any kind of suggestions and contributions with respect to the "typographic" and aesthetic features of the mind map are also (more than) welcome.

License, distribution and creating derivatives

See LICENSE. It is a modified version of CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which means that it is not one of the usual licenses of the open source (or publishing) world and you should be careful about distributing and creating derivatives. Simply stated:

• No fees may be charged for this map or any derivatives.
• You are free to distribute the mind map only by providing links to the project (https://github.com/ilalev/KdrV_mindmap).
• You can also create derivatives of this project (and distribute them) only if these derivatives are the result of independent work and you retain the same license. An example, for clarification: if you are a PhD student, then you are not independent (more precisely, any work you do for your PhD). You probably receive funding from your university and, even if this is not the case, your university endorses your work. The same applies if you are a professor or in any way affiliated with any kind of institution, organization etc. If this is the case, then you have two options (in both cases, the license may not be altered):
  • Either you must declare that the derivative is produced without any kind of support (basically, in your free time).
  • Or you must upload your derivative here, in this repository, as a contribution.
• If you create any derivatives and want to distribute them without contributing to this project, then you must provide public access to them. Derivatives used solely and strictly for personal study are exempt from this requirement.

Some technical details

The mind map was initially created using the Docear software. In order to navigate the map and/or make any changes, you may use a mind mapping software package, like Freeplane.

Reference

In the unlikely case you might need to refer to the mind map, the following BibTex entry should be used:

@misc{KdrV_mm,
	author = {Ilias Alevizos},
	title = {Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: A mind map.},
	url = {https://github.com/ilalev/KdrV_mindmap}
}