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By organizing ideas into a systematic framework, Comte gave impetus to several studies. Comte gave the name sociology to the new study, although he did not originate the concept or the subject. He extended and elaborated the field and systematized its content. |
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Comte inspired Lamprecht and other later students with his studies of intellectual history. He also influenced social reform movements, especially that of John Stuart Mill in England. To some degree, Comte's ideas about organizational power, lodged in functionaries within business and government, anticipated the managerial system. It would be too much to credit Comte with inventing the concept of bureaucracy, however. |
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Comte was an obsessive systematizer, for whom the synthetic positivist social philosophy not only clarified but also united and completed all lesser and subordinate philosophies. The Positivist calendar was not intended to be a specific reform of the Gregorian calendar as much as it was simply another integral part of the Positivist master plan for reorganizing society. |
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In later life, Comte's penchant for systematization congealed, as it often does, into a dogmatic rigidity. Many who had been attracted to his works in earlier years became increasingly disenchanted with his labored, tendentious, and heavy style. At their best, Comte's writings are notable for their scope and magnitude. At their worst, they are often simply monotonous and boring. |
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This section describes the structure of the Positivist calendar and provides historical material as background. |
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9.12.4.2.1
Structural Details |
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The Positivist calendar is a 13-month system. The year is divided into 13 uniform months, with each month divided into four uniform and traditional weeks of seven days, giving a total of (1347 =) 364 days within months. |
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A "complementary day" ends the year in common years and has no weekly or monthly designation. Comte, therefore, clearly anticipated the International Fixed Calendar and other reform calendars of the 20th century by adopting the expedient of treating the 365th day of the year as a blank day, which is not part of a month or week. The Positivist calendar is, therefore, a perpetual calendar in which all years have the same structure. |
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An "additional day" follows the complementary day in leap years, which are regulated by the Gregorian rule. Both days are therefore epagomenal. |
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All months begin with Monday and end with Sunday. In this, Comte anticipates the ISO switch to Monday as the first DOW. |
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Comte introduces, as well, other levels of organization into the calendar as a consequence of his desire to systematize all aspects of human endeavor according to the tenets of Positivism. Comte adopted, for example, ideas about historical determinism from Hume, Turgot, and Kant, and he further elaborated concepts for three stages of |
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