The paper discusses the recent literature on abstraction/idealization in connection with\ud the \paradox of infinite idealization." We use the case of taking thermodynamics limit\ud in dealing with the phenomena of phase transition and critical phenomena to broach\ud the subject. We then argue that the method of infinite idealization is widely used\ud in the practice of science, and not all uses of the method are the same (or evoke the\ud same philosophical problems). We then confront the compatibility problem of infinite\ud idealization with scientific realism. We propose and defend a contextualist position\ud for (local) realism and argue that the cases for infinite idealization appear to be fully\ud compatible with contextual realism