Alteration in development theories due to the socio-political, economic, cultural, and biological transformation is undeniable. However, while the employed development approach is based on the crisis each society confronts, degree of effectiveness for each factor is dissimilar in different social milieu, and so, one might find verity of indexes recognized as the indication for development in different historical periods. For instance, while in the post-WWII, the economic growth has been thought as the unique index of development, in recent decades, due to the failure of western model in non-western countries, and thanks to the appearance of critical approaches, some alternative paradigms of development outburst in which not only different factors such as poverty alleviation, gender equality, environment, and humanitarian norms such as human rights and democracy have been elevated as the critical index for development, but also the non-governmental players engaged in an equal position with the governments. Focusing on the alteration in developments paradigms in recent decades, the present study attempts to explore the intellectual history of development theories to find out how the transformations in different aspects of human life might help to alternative formations of thought on development.