Episteme vs Paradigm

Episteme vs Paradigm or Michel Foucault vs Thomas Kuhn this is a short comparison between two terms that have marked epistemological studies. 
The idiosyncratic use of the term paradigm by Kuhn meant to be used  as a collector of all the assumptions and beliefs that in their turn organise scientific theories and practices of a certain epoch. Kuhn was determined to uncover that one set of beliefs and assumptions that encompass scientific research. He was convinced that a series of conscious decisions by scientists were responsible for the scientific theories and practices to change their directions. It is obvious from that that Kuhn's paradigm shift was a part of an "epistemological Conscious". For Foucault things were a bit different. He was more keen to understand the "Epistemological Unconscious" of an era and for that matter he makes use of the episteme in his own idiosyncratic way. For Foucault the access to a set of fundamental assumptions and beliefs was impossible due to the fact that those assumptions were so basic that were almost invisible to the scientists that were operating within it. Based on the "unconscious" character of episteme, Foucault opens his analysis to a broader discourse and does not merely confined it to science. Foucault therefore, is more interested to search for the constitutive limits of a discourse, and more importantly the rules responsible for their emergence and productivity.  


Reading:: 
The Order of Things by Michel Foucault 
The Archaeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault 
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn