QBism Is Not So Simply Dismissed

TL;DR

This paper defends QBism as a viable interpretation of quantum mechanics by addressing criticisms related to its subjective quantum states, realism, and state evolution, highlighting its consistency with Born's invariance and unitary evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed rebuttal to recent criticisms of QBism, clarifying its stance on realism and the evolution of quantum states, and demonstrating its coherence with foundational principles.

Findings

QBism aligns with Born's invariance as a mark of the real.

The subjective quantum state can account for unitary evolution.

QBism's realism is comparable to Einstein's concept of the real.

Abstract

QBism is one of the main candidates for an epistemic interpretation of quantum mechanics. According to QBism, the quantum state or the wavefunction represents the subjective degrees of belief of the agent assigning the state. But, although the quantum state is not part of the furniture of the world, quantum mechanics grasps the real via the Born rule which is a consistency condition for the probability assignments of the agent. In this paper, we evaluate the plausibility of recent criticism of QBism . We focus on the consequences of the subjective character of the quantum state, the issue of realism and the problem of the evolution of the quantum state in QBism. In particular, drawing upon Born's notion of invariance as the mark of the real, it is argued that there is no essential difference between Einstein's program of the "real" and QBists' realism. Also, it will be argued that QBism can account for the unitary evolution of the quantum state.