Approaches to translation and judgements concerning the quality of a translatoin can vary greatly from one society or moment in time to another, or even within closely related contexts. These variations can be seen as momentary fluctuations within a more general and stable theory or they can be considered essential to the very practice of translation. The author argues that if the latter is the case and the criteria which determine whether a translation is acceptable vary due to factors unrelated to the texts themselves, then the notion of faithfulness becomes one of faithfulness to the criteria determing these relations. It then becomes important, when evaluating a translation or describing the practice of translation, to define the criteria used and to demonstrate their role.