Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Alain de Botton strikes up unlikely friendship with One Direction's Harry Styles

The pair are all of a Twitter over philosophy

Daisy Wyatt
Thursday 14 February 2013 08:39 EST
Comments
Philosopher Alain de Botton and One Direction star Harry Styles
Philosopher Alain de Botton and One Direction star Harry Styles (Gotti Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

If you thought professional cynic Charlie Brooker and ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq were an unlikely pairing, how about One Direction’s Harry Styles and philosopher Alain de Botton?

To two have struck up a friendship after de Botton yesterday challenged the One Direction star to use his huge Twitter following to educate the masses about Greek philosophy. Styles rose to the task, tweeting the line- albeit from Wikipedia- to his 10 million followers: “Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy”

The Religion for Atheists author previously told Metro: “The problem we’ve got is the most famous people in the country tend to believe things that aren’t particularly ambitious. In an ideal world Harry Styles would be teaching his 10 million Twitter followers a little more about Greek philosophy.”

The two also appear to have hit it off at a party, according to The Sun. “He was very interested in finding out about philosophy. He seems a very intelligent chap,” said the philosopher about Styles.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in