It is true that 'I seem to see a table' does not entail 'I see a table'; but 'I seem to feel a pain' does entail 'I feel a pain'. So scepticism loses its force - cannot open up its characteristic gap - with regard to that which ultimately most concerns us, pleasure and pain.
Interpretation
The quote discusses the nature of perception and the certainty of feelings, asserting that while we can doubt what we see, we cannot doubt our feelings of pleasure and pain.
Galen Strawson's quote highlights a significant philosophical distinction between visual perception and sensory experience. It suggests that while one can question the validity of visual observations—such as whether a table is truly there—one's experiences of pleasure and pain are undeniable and cannot be subjected to the same level of skepticism. This indicates that when it comes to our fundamental sensations and emotions, skepticism falls short as these experiences truly matter to us.
In practice
During a philosophical lecture on the nature of reality, this quote might be used to emphasize the difference between skepticism and personal experience.
I've never seen a sincere white man, not when it comes to helping black people. Usually things like this are done by white people to benefit themselves. The white man's primary interest is not to elevate the thinking of black people, or to waken black people, or white people either. The white man is interested in the black man only to the extent that the black man is of use to him. The white man's interest is to make money, to exploit.
For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected.
Whatever else it might be, the divine is certainly the thing that imposes with maximum intensity the sensation of being alive.
Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it.
Time will discover everything to posterity; it is a babbler, and speaks even when no question is put.
Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world.
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