Positivist calendar
1849 calendar reform proposal
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The positivist calendar was an attempt at calendar reform put forward by Auguste Comte in 1849 that used 13 months of 28 days rather than the Gregorian Calendar's 12 months of 30/31 days in adherence with his scientific study of society, Positivism. The calendar was a revision of the earlier eternal calendar developed by Marco Mastrofini, which also used 13 months of 28 days, and, like the positivist calendar, included a 365th day that didn't fall into any month.[1] Mastrofini himself revised earlier concepts from Hugh Jones, who published under the pen name of "Hirossa Ap-Iccim", the Georgian Calendar, a year made of 13 months of 28 days, named after George II, though it lacked a 365th day, making it 364 days.[2]In the positivist calendar the last day of the year was designated as a festival day to commemorate the dead. [3]
This extra day added to the last month was outside the days of the week cycle, and so the first of a month was always a Monday. On leap years, an additional festival day (also outside the week cycle), to celebrate pariahs and outcasts[4], would join the memorial day of the dead. The scheme followed the Gregorian calendar rules for determining which years are leap years, and started on January 1. Year 1 "of the Great Crisis" (i.e. the French Revolution) was equivalent to 1789 in the standard Gregorian system.
Much like Comte's other ideas, the positivist calendar never saw widespread use.
Calendar
The months were named, in chronological historical order, for great figures in Western European history in the fields of science, religion, philosophy, industry and literature. Each day of the year was named after neither Catholic Saints as in the Georgian calendar nor after Parisian agriculture as in the French Republican calendar but after figures of history in various fields. Weeks and days were also dedicated to great figures in history as a secular version of the concept of saint's days. In all, the Positivist Calendar "contains the names of 558 great men of all periods, classified according to their field of activity."[5] Villains of history were also commemorated in order to be held up for "perpetual execration".[6] Napoleon, according to Comte, was especially deserving of this fate.[6]
Months were named:
- Moses - Initial religiosity
- Homer - Ancient poets
- Aristotle - Ancient philosophers
- Archimedes - Ancient science
- Caesar - Military civilization
- Saint Paul - Catholicism
- Charlemagne - Feudal civilization
- Dante - Modern epics
- Gutenberg - Modern industry
- Shakespeare - Modern drama
- Descartes - Modern philosophy
- Frederick - Modern politics
- Bichat - Modern science
As the positivist calendar more perfectly follows the sun's cycle, each day is the same day as the prior year, for example, the 21st of April, 2026 is a Tuesday, however the 21st of April, 2025 was a Monday. In the positivist calendar, both of these days would be Tuesdays. Taking advantage of this, August Comte named each day of the year, so, rather than being Tuesdays, both of these days are Hipparchus, though the original week names were also preserved. In general, the names listed get more and more modern as the year continues, with the first and oldest being Prometheus, the primordial inventor of fire in greek mythology and the last and newest being Franz Josef Gall, the father of phrenology. The names in each month follow the general themes of the name of the month (e.g Plato is a day in Aristotle). The following table is the full positivist calendar.
^a The first day of the year is Prometheus, and the first day of the month of Moses, but the first day of the first week is the festival day. The same is true for every other month, the first week of Homer is Muhammad, but Muhammad is the last day of Moses.
^b The original french states "Menou" which could, tentatively, potentially refer to general Menou, and could also potentially refer to Menus of Megara or even Memnos. While the theologic nature of the names of the days of the month of Moses points to Menno, the founder of the mennonites, Menno is out of place chronologically, being the youngest in the month, as a figure from the 16th century, nearly a century after the next youngest in Moses, Muhammad.
^c The original french states "Ulysse", which could be translated as either Ulysses or Odysseus, Ulysses/Ulysse is more common in French, and while both are used in English, Odysseus is more common.
^d Could also be referring to Ictinus of mythology.
^e The original french "Phédre" could potentially, though very unlikely, refer to Queen Phèdre, the protagonist of the tragedy of the same name, or Phaedra of mythology.
^f Could also refer to Anaximenes of Lampsacus, likely both.
^g Likely referring to Aristippus the Elder and Aristippus the Younger, not Aristippus of Larissa or Aristippus of Argos.
^h Likely referring to Antisthenes of Rhodes rather than Antisthenes the cynic, due to the inclusion of the other historian, Herodotus earlier in the month of Aristotle.
^i There are many people named Polybus this could refer to.
^j Comte writes Nearchos as "Néarque". As this is the month of Archimedes, he is likely referring to Nearchos, the painter in Attica, rather than the much more famous Nearchus of Lato, Navarch of Alexander the Great.
^k While there are a great deal of notable people named Paul-Émile, the original calendar document states "Paul-Emile" without an acute accent, and the only person named Paul-Emile with a hyphen and without an acute accent in 1852 when it was published would be Jean-François-Paul-Emile.
^l Likely refers to both Scipio Africanus and Scipio Aemilianus, and the various other generals named Scipio.
^m Almost certainly refers to James the Great rather than James the Less.
^n Comte's calendar simply says "Villiers" and as such this day could refer to any member of the Villiers family notable prior to 1852.
^o The original French says "La Valette", while this could theoretically refer to Charles, marquis de La Valette or Adolph von La Valette-St. George, neither would be prominent enough in 1852 for Comte to note. Therefore Comte is likely Jean Parisot de Valette, who was occasionally referred to as "Jean Parisot de la Valette", which Comte then shortened to "La Valette"
^p While Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard is more likely, as it is the 13th of Charlemagne, Comte could also be referring to Bayard, the legendary horse that Charlemagne killed. Prior in the month Comte names the 6th after John of Austria, and according to some sources[7], both Bayard the horse and John of Austria died in the same region, which also points to the horse.
^q The original French, "Léon IV" could refer to Leo IV the Khazar, Leo IV of Armenia, or Pope Leo IV. Pope Leo the Great is also the namesake of the 15th of Charlemagne, which points to Pope Leo IV.
^r There are a great deal of people named Black, for the 18th of Guttemberg Comte simply says "Black.". See Black (surname).
^s As the subtitle for the month of Guttemberg is "l'Industrie Moderne" or "Modern Industry", "Riquet" could also refer to the industrialist Joseph de Riquet de Caraman.[4]
^t Any member of the De Witt family could be being referred to.
^u Henri de Lambert is the husband of Madame de Lambert.
^v Or Toussaint-Dieudonné Sauveur.
^w Comte could be referencing a number of Romans, likely Marcus Atilius Regulus, but also Marcus Atilius Regulus, Marcus Atilius Regulus, Marcus Atilius Regulus Calenus, or Marcus Aquilius Regulus.
^x Zeno of Citium, Zeno of Elea, Zeno, could be the namesake of this date.
Criticism
In 1849, Comte wrote that he called his calendar a "breach of continuity" with the old way of thinking, and his Humanistic calendar was part of that breach. He called it, "a provisional institution, destined for the present exceptional century to serve as an introduction to the abstract worship of Humanity."[8]
Aside from the religious references the calendar carried, Duncan Steel, author of Marking Time, believes the novelty of the calendar's month names alone helped prevent the wide acceptance of this proposal.
The main reason that his suggestion [for calendar reform] failed to find favor with many people seems to have been that he insisted on naming the months for various notable persons from historical to modern times, ... One must admit that it would seem strange to give the date as the third day of Homer, and with a month named for the bard a reference to "Shakespeare's Twelfth Night" would be ambiguous.[9]
Author Tricia Lootens writes that the idea of naming days after literary figures, as if they were Catholic Saint days, didn't catch on outside the Positivist movement.
Outside of positivist circles, canonization of literary secular saints was nearly always slightly tinged with irony or nostalgia, and positivist circles were never large.[10]
Advantages
The several advantages of the Positivist calendar are mainly related to its organization. The subdivision of the year is very regular and systematic:
- Every year has exactly 52 weeks divided in 13 months.
- Each month has exactly 28 days divided in 4 weeks.
- Every day of the month falls on the same weekday in each month (i.e. the 17th always falls on a Wednesday).
- Specific dates can be referred to by their given names (i.e last Tuesday was Amontons)
- The vast array of historical figures the average person would have to know to communicate time would spread intellectualism and education.
All dates being named dissolves ambiguity between date and time notations, as rather than a date such as the 9th of April, 2026 being either written as 9/4/26 and 4/9/26 depending on location, which causes confusion with the 4th of September, 2026, one could just add "Aristaeus", which is the name of the 9th of Archimedes in the positivist calendar.
The calendar is the same every year (perennial), unlike the annual Gregorian calendar, which differs from year to year. Hence, scheduling is easier for institutions and industries with extended production cycles. Movable holidays celebrated on the nth certain weekday of a month, such as U.S. Thanksgiving day, would be able to have a fixed date while keeping their traditional weekday.
Statistical comparisons by months are more accurate, since all months contain exactly the same number of business days and weekends, likewise for comparisons by 13-week quarters. Supporters of the Positivist calendar have argued that thirteen equal divisions of the year are superior to twelve unequal divisions in terms of monthly cash flow in the economy.
Disadvantages
While each quarter would be equal in length (13 weeks), thirteen is a prime number, placing all activities currently done on a quarterly basis out of alignment with the months.
Christian, Islamic and Jewish leaders are historically opposed to the calendar, as their tradition of worshiping every seventh day would result in either the day of the week of worship changing from year to year, or eight days passing when "The Festival of All the Dead” or “The Festival of Holy Women" occurs.[11]
Birthdays, significant anniversaries, and other holidays would need to be recalculated as a result of a calendar reform, and would always be on the same day of the week. This could be problematic for Public holidays that would fall under non-working days under the new system; eg. If a public holiday is celebrated on January 8, under the Positivist calendar that holiday would always fall on a Sunday, Moses 8, which is already a non-working day, and compensatory leave would have to be given each year on Moses 9, thus essentially changing the date of the holiday to Moses 9. A vast amount of administrative data, and the software that manages that, would have to be corrected/adjusted for the new system, potentially having to support both the IFC and the standard local time keeping systems for a period of time. If compensatory leave would be granted at all on Moses 9.
The reorganization of the numbering of years would inevitably cause confusion between years between calendar systems, such as the year 100 under the positivist calendar and 100 AD under the Gregorian calendar.
The great number of names the average person would have to memorize is a daunting task.