My first introduction to philosophy wasn’t in a lecture theatre or textbook.
It was growing up in a Christian home.
Faith shaped me. Not religiousity.
It taught me values of service, compassion, and integrity.
It instilled the idea that life is bigger than the self, and that how you show up for others matters.
Over time, I walked into science.
Physics, geospatial data, environmental systems, various digital technologies.
Science gave me tools to measure, prove, and model the world around me.
It sharpened my logic, but it also exposed limits: science can tell us what works, but not always what is right.
And then philosophy found me again.
Not as doctrine, but as an unfolding horizon.
I began to ask: What must never be automated? How do we lead with integrity? What does it mean to act in service of generations yet to come?
Today, after almost 30 years in the workforce and nearly 45 years on this plane of existence, I see my philosophy as a weave:
Faith gave me service and integrity.
Science gave me reason and evidence.
Philosophy gives me the courage to sit in uncertainty, and to live in the questions.
Because uncertainty is not a weakness. It is part of reality itself.
Quantum mechanics reminds us that particles can be wave and point, here and not-here, until observed.
What we choose to notice, and what we choose to ignore, shapes what becomes real.
That’s as true in society and leadership as it is in physics.
In te ao Māori, science and philosophy are never divided.
Whakapapa explains both cause and meaning.
Tikanga is both practical and ethical.
The atua are not just myth, but cosmology, ecology, and guidance for living.
Here, the “science of philosophy” is not something new, but something remembered.
And so I stand here: not certain of what I believe, and not afraid of that.
Because my experiences, the ones I’ve had, the ones I will yet have, and the ones I will never have – are all part of the weave.
Philosophy is not about having the answers.
It is about walking with integrity, compassion, and courage while we live into the questions.
So I ask you:
What is the science in your philosophy?
What are the values in your science?
And how do we weave them together to guide humanity, not just into being clever, but into becoming wise?