Epistemic translation is the translation that transmits knowledge. Its purpose is to convince the addressee of the appropriateness and the relevance of the statement. This is the third type of translation.

After the Second World War, the Eastern bloc did not forget Zola, the author of Germinal, the committed intellectual; he was seen as a great "defender of truthˮ, and this despite the reticence of major Marxist figures, from Engels to Lukács.