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Abstract Philological work is transformational work, and this is particularly true for textual criticism and critical editing. Nevertheless, philological epistemology has almost always maintained a somewhat hostile relationship to both the logic and practice of transformation or even has claimed a secure position outside the processes that are shaped by such transformations. The contribution sheds light on some aspects of this problematic relationship from a historical and methodological perspective and argues for a more friendly and pragmatic attitude – one that no longer conceptually locates philology in an illusionary ‘beyond’ of transformational processes.