Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates Used By Harry Styles On Twitter

Ancient Greek philosophy, including Socrates, suddenly became popular as Harry Styles starts writing about the subject on Twitter. The One Direction star was urged to do so by writer Alain de Botton in a newspaper interview.

Ancient Greek philosophy and pop music stars usually do not come up in the same conversation, but this morning a Tweet has caused such a commotion. Alain de Botton told Metro that he would like the One Direction star to teach his fans about Greek philosophy and the works of Socrates, Hegel, and Proust. So he did.

According to Digital Spy, Harry Styles wrote a message about Socrates on his Twitter feed this morning,February 13, using a direct quote pulled from the Wikipedia page for Ancient Greek philosophy:

“Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy.”

Not exactly eloquent, but de Botton would like to see this as just a start for making Ancient Greek philosophy popular among the teenie boppers:

“My plan is to shut the Arts Council and get people such as Harry Styles to go on television and recommend to everyone they read Proust and Hegel, which would achieve more in five minutes than the Arts Council achieves year in, year out. David Beckham could do Aristotle and Plato. The cause of intellectual life in this country would be helped immeasurably. The problem we’ve got is the most famous people in the country tend to believe in things that aren’t particularly ambitious, whereas the people who believe in really ambitious things are stuck away in an ivory tower and no-one bothers listening to what they think. In an ideal world Harry Styles would be teaching his ten million Twitter followers a little more about Greek philosophy. “

According to OMG!, Alain de Botton actually met Harry style at a party recently, but, perhaps not unsurprisingly, the pop star and the professor didn’t have much in common:

“I was introduced to him at a party. Neither of us had heard of each other. We had a nice chat. It was fun.”

What do you think about Socrates and Ancient Greek philosophy suddenly becoming popular on the internet because of the One Direction star Harry Styles? Do you think this is just a one-time joke, or do you think, perhaps, that Harry Styles might take the literacy of his fans a little more seriously?

Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy.

— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) February 13, 2013