Can the Customer’s Will Be the “Categorical Imperative”?

Aim. To consider the concepts proclaiming adherence to the "will of the customer" as the most important principle of interlanguage translation, and to show that such an attitude means, in essence, a return in disguise to the practice of censorship distortion of the original text. Methodology. The works in the field of translation studies over the past decades have been analyzed, the provisions related to the research topic expressed in them have been compared, similarities and differences in the positions of individual authors in relation to translation attitudes have been revealed, and their inherent proximity in some cases to the practice of state censorship of translated texts that took place in the past has been shown. Results. The article substantiates the position that the thesis put forward in a number of concepts of modern translation studies about the monopoly of the customer in determining the content and form of a translated text, regardless of the original, means the actual elimination of translation as a special form of interlanguage and intercultural communication and cannot be considered justified either from the linguistic or linguistic-cultural point of view. Research implications. The factual material and the provisions and conclusions drawn on its basis make it possible to clarify the controversial points of modern translation studies, confirm the importance and necessity of an objective approach to the principles of interlanguage communication and the inexpediency of abandoning the conceptual and categorical apparatus developed by representatives of linguistic translation studies.