Abstract: There are two opposing paradigms in the theoretical researches of sustainable development: strong sustainability and weak sustainability. The fundamental difference between the two kinds of paradigms lies in whether to recognize the alternativity of natural capital in its essence. Based on different paradigms, there are different measurement methods for sustainable development, of which the ecological footprint method based on the strong sustainability and the genuine savings method based on the weak sustainability are more typical. Combining the latest measurement results of the two methods, this paper obtains the contrariety and unitarity from the comparison of the two paradigms.

Key words: strong sustainability; weak sustainability; measure of sustainable development