Comporarison of Thomas Kuhn's paradigm with Michel Foucault's episteme

The main theme of this study is to examine the approaches and methods used to determine the scientific and social changes. This study primarily refers to Kuhn, an area that draws attention with the concept of paradigm, which shapes the change of method and theory in scientific sense. On the other hand, it refers to an area directed to Foucault, who put forward a social scientific philosophy in an historical perspective with the meaning he imposed on the concept of episteme. In this study, we aimed to reveal that both philosophers developed their own concepts in the fields of thought and analysis and differentiated them from traditional thought structures. It is possible to see that these two thinkers, who show that the structure of change and progress in a different way than accepted in both scientific and philosophical dimensions, have a common ground in terms of their methods and techniques even if the concepts used are separate. While Kuhn places the concept of paradigm at the core of change, Foucault expresses change through the changeable nature of the episteme. Both thinkers have sought to descend to the background of the shaping structures in historical periods. Both thinkers will be tried to understand by evaluating the methods they use and the concepts they develop. Therefore, this study can be considered as an attempt to combine similarities in a meaningful whole in terms of the path they follow, pointing to the common denominator between the two thinkers.