Abstract:  
The object of this research is the phenomenon of oppositions, or binarity. The subject is the role and place of the phenomenon of opposition in the area of socio-humanitarian knowledge – since the times of Antiquity till modern concepts, formed in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Based on the historiographical analysis, the authors demonstrate the non-transitional meaning of the researched phenomenon within the social thought, as well as thoroughly examine the ontological and gnoseological essences of the phenomenon of opposition, taking into account the permanent mutual substantiation of being and conscience, which experience the guiding and forming effect  of the same universal laws. Authors’ main contribution into this research is the examination of the phenomenon of opposition in the historiographical context on one hand, and within the framework of broad field of socio-humanitarian knowledge on the other. Scientific novelty consists namely in such generalized and comparative analysis of the discussed phenomenon. The main conclusion lies in the fact that any binary confrontation implicitly contains in itself a possibility for a new quality reformation of a situation, and correspondingly, a new condition for new oppositions.