The man who first declared that “seeing” was “believing” laid his finger (whether he knew it himself or not) on one of the fundamental follies of humanity. The easiest of all evidence to receive is the evidence that requires no other judgment to decide on it than the judgment of the eye—and it will be, on that account, the evidence which humanity is most ready to credit, as long as humanity lasts.
Wilkie Collins, Man and Wife, Chapter the Twentieth
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince”
Well, it was a very good heuristic up until photography and than television were invented.
This predates television entirely and photography all but entirely.
Ok, different meanings of the word “see”.