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Originally Posted by 1010011010
The best opposites are similar in all respects except for the characteristics you wish to illustrate. It's a way of saying "All these similarities are not significant." So Cat/Dog is a good set of opposites because they're both furry animals, that live on earth, eat meat, are kept as pets, have tails, bear live young, have four feet, etc. If, however, you oppose platypus and freedom... it's not really clear what the hell you're trying to get at with the comparison (or the contrast, rather).
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I think this is interesting - especially the way that choosing a pair of opposites can be used as a way of defining this contextual thing we were talking about. e.g. Someone could go on for a long time about furry animals, or different wavelengths of light, or whatever, but if they pick two examples of things that are opposite, we can quickly understand what the continuum is (i.e. this contextual thing that's otherwise quite hard to nail down) that lies between the two extremes being demonstrated.
In this way, the opposing things act as signposts or markers, helping to define the thing around which they've been placed.