Time as a normative construction of work: from the works and days to the proposal for reform of the Gregorian calendar

Abstract

This article analyzes time as a normative construction fundamental to the organization of work, articulating a historical-philosophical reading of Hesiod’s poem Works and Days with a contemporary proposal for reorganizing the temporal regime developed in O Trabalho e os Dias – Proposta de Reforma do Calendário Gregoriano. It argues that time, since Antiquity, has never been a neutral or merely natural dimension, but rather a regulatory principle of productive, moral, and social life. Modernity, by abstracting, quantifying, and juridifying time, crystallized in the Gregorian calendar a rigid structure for organizing work and rest, whose social, economic, and human limits have become increasingly evident. Methodologically, the article adopts a theoretical-bibliographical and analytical-propositional approach, demonstrating that, because time is historical and normative, it can be rationally reorganized. It concludes that calendar reform constitutes an original contribution to social philosophy and labor law by proposing a redistribution of days capable of enhancing productive rationality without suppressing rest or human dignity.