 The solution lies in the Hegelian perception that our knowledge is perfected when its objects are conceived as parts of a whole, ultimately the Absolute. This way of understanding, however, is not something to be accomplished simply. Human understanding evolves as human experience increases and our knowledge expands. Accordingly, Caird and the other Scottish Idealists, especially David Ritchie at St Andrews, welcomed the growth of natural science, and especially biology, as providing important new material for the further evolutionary development of human understanding as a whole.