the time the first real newspa-

RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
pers were started in Boston during the early 18th century, the teleological import of the news had all but vanished. Even so, Nord argues, journalism continued to feel the Puritan influence. "The news would remain event-oriented, devoted to unusual (but conventional) occurrences, and de- pendent on reportorial empiricism." The chief difference is that, today, "no one knows what the stories mean."

Locke's Lapses &qu...