Quantum Mechanics, Correlations, and Relational Probability

Abstract

This article sets forth and discusses the Ithaca Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (IIQM). Section 1 presents the standard formalism of quantum mechanics and the measurement problem. Section 2 sketches Everett’s interpretation as a preamble to IIQM. Section 3 sets out IIQM’s central claim: it is possible to make sense of quantum mechanics by taking as the proper (and only) subject of physics the correlations among subsystems. Section 4 introduces a theorem of quantum mechanics, the SSC theorem, which supports this claim. Section 5 contends that at least two problems exist with IIQM, and one serious objection against it. Section 6 discusses a strategy based on relational probabilities to go around the objection.