A collection of influential pieces originally published in the popular "New York Times" column explores subjects ranging from consciousness and morality to the gender divide and gun control, with an introduction about the column's founding and editorial process.

Essays selected from the New York Times' column, The Stone.

Philosophy. New impressions of an old profession ; The geography of philosophy ; Rethinking thinkers ; Old problems, new spins -- Philosophy, literature and life -- Science. Can science explain everything? ; The evolution of right and wrong ; Where is my mind? ; Blinded by neuroscience? ; The social impact of science ; Can we live with uncertainty? -- Religion and morals. What is faith? ; The varieties of religious disagreement ; Morality's God problem ; Some hard moral cases -- Society. Economics and politics ; The modern family ; Black, white or other ; Freedom from the barrel of a gun ; This American life.