In this article, the author describes the relationship between philosophy and translation. Although most disciplines in the humanities are related by chains of authority, borrowing concepts from one another, philosophy can be said to be standing on its own. It develops its own concepts and terms, borrowing nothing from other disciplines and thus does not borrow authority from other disciplines. What it does do, is act in the service of others, amongst these Translation Studies. The author discusses the main problems in the relations between philosophy and translation, and argues that the problem of Translation Studies is probably not that it has to read more philosophy, but that it should pay more dialectic attention to what translators do and say. The key to the problem might be to think more bottom-up instead of top-down, leaving from the translators themselves, who reach the level of philosophical discourse when discussing heavy translation problems.