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.
And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him.
Not just self-restraint, that old killjoy, but communal restraint.
Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.
Each side tries to legitimize their aims by appealing to history, sometimes selectively choosing episodes and other times just by inventing history.
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.
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