  Du Bos’s primary contributions to philosophy are in aesthetics but he also contributed to the revolt against Cartesianism in France. Cartesianism dominated French thinking about knowledge and science until well into the eighteenth century (Illiffe 2003, 269). Du Bos’s approach to philosophy of art was thoroughly empiricist and so was his attitude towards science. He deserves credit for applying Locke’s empirical account of knowledge to scientific hypotheses.