  This vision of the artwork as a privileged medium of expression and communication (in the substantive, metaphysical senses given to these words in existentialist philosophy) leads to a relatively coherent approach to the different art forms, something like a loose existentialist ‘system of the arts.’ A system of the arts explains not just what art is in essence, seeking a definition of art and determining its social, political or philosophical functions. It also ranks the arts in a hierarchy, giving an account of how each form uses specific material and expressive means to fulfil those functions. In the end, one art-form in particular is usually regarded as privileged, exemplary of the mode of fulfilling the mission of art. All classical philosophical aesthetics, from Kant and his immediate followers to Alain, have presented their own, more or less developed “système des beaux-arts” (Alain 1920, Natanson 1968).