Paradigms and 'epistemes' in the history of economic thought

This paper explores the relations between the Kuhnian concept of 'paradigm' and the Foucauldian notion of 'episteme' and how they may help us to think about economic discourse. In the fields of philosophy and history of ideas, such relations, though not deeply investigated, have been noticed since the publication of Foucault's The Order of Things in 1966. In economics, despite Kuhn's influence, Foucault has been practically ignored. Therefore, this paper has two basic aims. First, it investigates their relations in terms of some main notions existing in both Foucault's and Kuhn's systems. Second, it applies their fundamental concepts, 'episteme' and 'paradigm', to the economic thought of the first three-quarters of the 18th century: 'mercantilism' and 'physiocracy'. Whilst it may be possible to see 'mercantilists' and physiocrats belonging to different 'paradigms', they were, according to Foucault, in the same 'epistemic' context. It is argued that these notions refer to a very distinct level in what concerns the underlying fundamental structure that determines knowledge and that their investigation may shed light on the historiography and methodology of economics.