Harry Styles, Alain de Botton, Socrates: One Directioner Responds to Writer Urging Him to be More 'Ambitious,' Tweets Greek Mythology

Harry Styles was recently called out by author Alain de Botton for a lack of "ambition" in regards to his interests. The 19-year-old One Direction singer took this accusation to heart and took to his Twitter account, tweeting: "Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy." Out of context, this message seems a little confusing to Styles' fans, but thankfully de Botton's recent interview that sparked the response from Styles has gained a lot of attention.

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

— Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles) February 13, 2013

Though Harry's tweet looks like he copied it from a Wikipedia article, the fact that he posted it is playing right into what de Botton wants. The author brought up how today's culture of young celebrities can easily get fans interested in philosophy, leading to the cancellation of the Arts Council. Alain stated:

"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. "

It is pretty clear that de Botton meant these comments in jest, but it has already had an effect. The last line of the quote above has happened. "Socrates" is a trending search term on some search engines. Who knows what will come from Styles' apparent interest in Socrates. Everyone knows that Socrates is a "gateway" philosopher, leading to interests in other greats such as Plato and Nietszche. This could honestly change a whole generation of girls swooning over a musical act into young women who question the norms and branch out into the world. Harry Styles could have just started the journey of the world's next great philosopher. This could be a great example of the "Butterfly Effect." Or maybe the fans of Styles will just get board with Socrates' philosophy and move on.