English

Probabilism for Stochastic Theories

History and Philosophy of Physics 2018-09-11 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

I defend an analog of probabilism that characterizes rationally coherent estimates for chances. Specifically, I demonstrate the following accuracy-dominance result for stochastic theories in the C*-algebraic framework: supposing an assignment of chance values is possible if and only if it is given by a pure state on a given algebra, your estimates for chances avoid accuracy-dominance if and only if they are given by a state on that algebra. When your estimates avoid accuracy-dominance (roughly: when you cannot guarantee that other estimates would be more accurate), I say that they are sufficiently coherent. In formal epistemology and quantum foundations, the notion of rational coherence that gets more attention requires that you never allow for a sure loss (or 'Dutch book') in a given sort of betting game; I call this notion full coherence. I characterize when these two notions of rational coherence align, and I show that there is a quantum state giving estimates that are sufficiently coherent, but not fully coherent.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1809.03053,
  title  = {Probabilism for Stochastic Theories},
  author = {Jeremy Steeger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.03053},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

19 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:59:34.726Z