Is free will real?

[bennyboy]

-and that experience can be very real, while simultaneously very much in error, as can a great many other experiences.

When I look at my desk, I see a flat and (mostly) uniform surface-- a singular surface, which cannot possibly be "real" in the context of a universe composed only of particles. Am I "in error," or can the ability to symbolize patterns reveal a level of reality not to be found in any of those particles, OR even non-arbitrarily in any collection of them?

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Observe free will? No, you can't observe it. It's a hypothesis. You can observe people claiming to have free will though. That's not the same thing.

The knife you're using is too dull to separate free will from any other aspect of existence. In your sense, even the sense of self is a "hypothesis." Prove that you "really" exist.

You could only observe it if you could somehow replay the conditions of a "choice" again exactly, and to see if a different decision was made. And even if it was, you then have to determine how the choice is being made, be it random or whatever.

Why would you make a different choice? Randomness implies a LACK of control, not the existence of it. Free will implies the capacity to make decisions which are an expression of one's entire humanity: world view, memories, perceptions, etc. You would necessarily make the same choice every time, because only one choice could be the perfect expression of who/what you are.