Harry Styles takes on philosopher Alain de Botton's challenge to educate the youth

Harry Styles takes on philosopher Alain de Botton's challenge to educate the youth

By Fehintola Betiku

PUBLISHED: 07:06 EST, 14 February 2013 | UPDATED: 11:38 EST, 14 February 2013

Harry Styles is known as many things in the the industry - heartthrob, trendsetter and party animal, to name a few.

And after striking up an unlikely friendship with philosopher Alain de Botton, the 19-year-old is on a mission to school his fans in philosophy.

Alain de Botton, 43, recently urged pop stars to lend a hand in getting their fans to read the classics.

And soon after Styles tweeted: 'Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy.'

Unlikely union: Harry Styles has struck a friendship with philosopher Alain de Botton

Proving he not all about the hair: Harry showed off the little knowledge he has regarding Greek philosophy

Speaking to the Metro Alain said: '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... and in an ideal world Harry Styles would be teaching his 10million Twitter followers a little more about Greek philosophy.'

This prompted Harry's insightful tweet about Socrates and Greek philosophy.

The post went on to be retweeted 41,628 times and was favoured by 39,162 users on the micro-blogging site.

'He was very interested in finding out about philosophy': De Bon had kind words about his meeting with Harry

Impressed with the One Direction singer's post, Alain spoke to The Sun about the first time he met Styles at a party which led to a 'nice chat'.

He said: 'He was very interested in finding out about philosophy. He seemed a very intelligent chap.'

And talking about Harry's tweet Alain admitted he was 'pleased' that harry hand taken note and though his message was more than just a joke.

He added: 'It’s important to try and bridge this gap between popular culture and what people see as highbrow. Hopefully, this will be the start of Harry engaging with more philosophy.'

Mission to educate: One Direction could soon see their fans swapping notes on the classics