Possibly. I mean deriving from highly trusted knowledge (like newtons laws, probability theory) instead of leaning on derived knowledge for which you have not done the derivation.

You're right it means going away from empirical/statistical knowledge to modelling the specific underlying process. Don't know if I'd call that more abstract or less abstract or what.

I think I'm using it how we used it in engineering school. If it becomes confusing, we can come up with a better phrase.