How can art and artist be both autonomous and inseparable from the network of social processes? Aren’t these incompatible conditions? Not exactly, for while the arts are an integral part of the social order, their social value, I want to argue, rests on the preservation of artistic freedom. Under such a condition the arts not only make their unique contribution and demonstrate their distinctive value, but this curious circumstance provides a basis on which to evaluate the individual work of art. We arrive, then, at an unanticipated consequence: The more completely art is encouraged to pursue its own course, to follow its inherent direction, the more successfully will the arts be able to make their distinctive contribution to social life. The rest of this chapter is an elaboration and defense of that claim.