ABSTRACT
Idealized models misrepresent the world, but typically they do so only partially. That is, idealized models typically latch onto reality in significant respects. How should we analyze the way in which idealized models can provide partially veridical representations of their target systems? Or take some idealization—a respect in which an idealized model misrepresents the world—and ask: what is its function, and how is it related to the truthlatching aspects of the model? Here I provide some answers to these questions, applicable to some idealizations.
