"It Was a Pretty High Title": Kantian Ethics in A Connecticut Yankee

Abstract

Reviewing Mark Twain's 23 November 1869 lecture at Allyn Hall, the Hart ford Courant reported that [w] e did not go in expecting him to expound political economy or the philosophy of Kant, but to have an hour of healthy laughter.1 This notion of Twain as unlettered funnyman is not unique to the Courant, Twain himself cultivated the appearance of ignorance throughout his life, and despite the increasing volume of biography and criticism that counters this notion with evidence of his broad and sometimes deep read ing, the one-dimensional idea of Twain persists. Even those who suggest that Twain was a man of great knowledge seem loath to grant him too much; Louis J. Budd, for instance, who pioneered the study of Twain's political beliefs in Mark Twain: Social Philosopher ( 1962), admitted in a recent preface to a new edition of his book that the subtitle overstates the sophistication of Twain's ideas.2 This is the joke of the Courant it would seem ludicrous to expect Twain to understand, let alone expound upon, the philosopher's philosopher Immanuel Kant. The field of Twain studies has not yet actively challenged the logic of that joke, even though a few critics have framed his work within philosophical contexts.3 Although Twain hardly exhibited the rigor of a philosopher, perhaps Budd's original subtitle may be closer to the mark than he suggests. In the case of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, for instance, one of Twain's most overtly political novels, Kant's political philosophy provides a useful lens through which to understand the implicit motivations of Hank Morgan. To be clear from the outset, this essay is not a source study. Other critics, most notably Howard Baetzhold and Joe B. Fulton, have diligendy scoured Twain's marginalia in various books to determine the extent to which they served as