We present a particular theorem of the alternative for finite systems of linear inequalities. The theorem is universal in the sense that other clas-sical theorems of the alternative (Motzkin’s Theorem and Tucker’s The-orem) are implicit in it; the theorem itself is an extension of Farkas’ Lemma. The presented result also generalizes and unifies both Dax’s new theorem the alternative [Dax, A. (1993). Annals of Operations Re-search, 46, 11–60] and Rohn’s residual existence theorem for linear equations [Rohn, J. (2010). Optimization Letters, 4, 287–292]. The universal theorem of the alternative is established by using Farkas’ Lemma in the setting of a vector space over a linearly ordered (commu-tative or skew) field.