  The paper discusses objections against non-hidden variable versions of the
epistemic conception of quantum states - the view that quantum states do not
describe the properties of quantum systems but reflect, in some way to be
specified, the epistemic conditions of agents assigning them. In the first half
of the paper, the main motivation for the epistemic conception of quantum
states is sketched, and a version of it is outlined, which combines ideas from
an earlier study of it [Friederich 2011] with elements of Richard Healey's
recent pragmatist interpretation of quantum theory [Healey 2012]. In the second
half, various objections against epistemic accounts of quantum states are
discussed in detail, which are based on criticisms found in the literature.
Possible answers by the version outlined here are compared with answers from
the quantum Bayesian point of view, which is at present the most discussed
version of the epistemic conception of quantum states.
