294: Existential Usage of Sight-observations Sep 28, 2015

Humans rely on sight very heavily and that translates into language. When something seems one way or another, people say that it "appears to be" or "looks as though", both phrases that invoke an idea of sight (appear ultimates derives from Latin 'apparere', which itself is from 'ad-' meaning ‘toward’ and 'parere' "come into view") whether or not anything is seen at all.
This is not restricted to English either, the Lain verb for 'seem', 'videri' comes from 'videre' meaning 'to see'.