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The oxymoron "idiot savant" was used for the first time by John Down during his studies. The etymology is in the scientific literature.

Today we would use a less controversial term like "savant syndrome"... It seems appropriate given the title of the book (and the plot).

I always took it as an eulogy to the plasticity of the human intellect: we always have something to learn from anybody.

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I think the title is playing on the phrase "idiot savant" to indicate Dostoevsky himself, as the savant who wrote "The Idiot".

I think the main character is a Savant, who others view as an idiot. The title and its characterization are ironic. He is the smartest character in the book, but viewed as an idiot, due to a consistently ignorant society.

Not unlike, for example, Sufi poets who claim to be gods and then are humiliated and executed for heresy. His label of “idiot” is his execution. A crowd crying to crucify Christ.

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