Reading to Believe

Abstract

Umberto Eco once affirmed, “no one will put an end to books.” He did it in an era in which new technologies will supposedly extinguish the old habit of silent reading from paper as Saint Ambrose taught one of his greatest disciples, Saint Augustine. For his part, Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the bulwarks of the church in medieval philosophy, said, "Seeing to believe." His ruling
makes it clear that credit should be given only to what is directly seen. In other words, only what is visible leaves a record. But there are other ways of seeing things, like that of reading, as it allows us to interpret or deconstruct the body, the word, the apparentness of things; to make visible the occult; to show what is possible; to recognize the abstract; to philosophize about life; to feel the passions and desires —Spinoza would say— through the book