Idealized Laws and Explanatory Models

The idealized and abstract character of the fundamental laws of physics pose problems such as: How can they explain the physical processes within the domain of a theory? This paper analyzes the conceptual procedures of de-idealization, concretization, specialization and approximation in order to show how the models of a theory can be improved in a realistic manner. A model theoretic view of explanation is proposed: in order to explain a physical process it is required to de-idealized and concretized a model and to approximate apply it to the system that undergoes the process. Such de-idealized models provide more realistic conceptualizations of the systems while that the fundamental laws supplemented with specific laws account for the processes.