What does ～と見てよい/～と見ていい mean? How did it have its meaning?


I found these sentences using [SPACEALC](http://www.alc.co.jp/):

The content in parentheses and bolding are my own:

>   1. まず勝ち試合 **と見ていい** が、成り行き任せでは駄目です。  
>  You'll probably win the game, but that's not automatic.
>
>   2. ゴドフリィ・ノートンはこの件に深く関与している **と見ていい** **だろう** 。  
>  "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the matter.
>
>   3. ＜that以下＞は間違いない **と見てよい** 。  
>  It appears certain that
>
>   4. 例えば、「おはようございます」と言ってみて相手の外国人が「はあ？」と不思議そうな顔を見せたら、日本語を話せない **と見てよい** 。  
>  If, for example, you say, "Ohayo gozaimasu," and they look at you perplexed
> and utter, "HUH?", it's pretty good bet that they don't (speak Japanese).
>
>   5. 勇気は人間の資質の中で最も重要なもの **と見てよい** 。なぜならそれは他のすべての資質を保証する資質だからだ。  
>  Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the
> quality which guarantees all others.
>
>

  1. First I would like to draw attention to sentences 1 through 4. I gathered that と見てよい means something along the lines of "appear to be"

  2. Then consider sentences 2 and 5 where it seems to have the senses of "evident" and "rightly esteemed" which is like my previous conclusion of "appear to be" except **much** stronger.

  3. Then consider sentence 2 that ends in だろう, which weakens the assertion.

This makes me a little confused.

**(Question)** What does と見ていい・よい mean?  
How does this link back to what we know of て-form + いい?




～と見ていい basically means "safe to assume" or "safe to say" - this is why the
association with an assumption is so strong. But it can also be an analogy or
a more restatement of one thing as another, as in the cases of #2 and #5.
There, it isn't an assumption, per se; rather it is a statement of a general
sentiment. It becomes uncertain when followed by ～だろう as normal.

More generally, AをBと見る is just "to view A as B". と is a normal quoting
particle, and いい is used for acceptability as usual. I think the tricky bit
here is that 見る is being used in a way we aren't as used to.

So really, it isn't any more than the sum of it's parts. The meaning is
surprisingly straightforward. The literal approximation suggested in [your
comment](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/9564/384#comment20025_9569), is
`viewing __ as ～ is acceptable.` works just fine.




～と見ていい basically means "safe to assume" or "safe to say" - this is why the
association with an assumption is so strong. But it can also be an analogy or
a more restatement of one thing as another, as in the cases of #2 and #5.
There, it isn't an assumption, per se; rather it is a statement of a general
sentiment. It becomes uncertain when followed by ～だろう as normal.

More generally, AをBと見る is just "to view A as B". と is a normal quoting
particle, and いい is used for acceptability as usual. I think the tricky bit
here is that 見る is being used in a way we aren't as used to.

So really, it isn't any more than the sum of it's parts. The meaning is
surprisingly straightforward. The literal approximation suggested in [your
comment](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/9564/384#comment20025_9569), is
`viewing __ as ～ is acceptable.` works just fine.

