The classification of interests into two groups, namely, (a) those which arise from knowledge, and (b) those which arise from association with others, and the subdivision of each of these into three groups, making six in all, is one not of necessity, but of convenience. The knowledge interests are, (a) empirical, (b) speculative, (c) æsthetic; the interests arising from association are, (a) sympathetic, (b) social, (c) religious. This classification is adopted without criticism by most Herbartian writers. That the classification is made simply for convenience may be seen from such considerations as the following:--
1. Strictly speaking, _all_ interests arise from _experience_, the social no less than the speculative; hence experience is not a basis for classification at all.
2. Æsthetic interests, resting upon contemplation, need not be put into a group with those that rest upon the perception of cause and effect, or other relations perceived by discursive reflection.
3. The same is true for those empirical interests that are supposed to rest upon immediate sense apprehension, such as the interest in color, shape, sound, taste, odor.
4. If perception, reasoning, and sensibility are made bases for the classification of interests, why should not the active volitional powers of the mind become a basis likewise? Some claim that pleasure and pain rest primarily upon the _motor_ side of our activity, rather than upon the sensory. Our interest in _doing_ is antecedent to our interest in knowing or feeling. This fact is fully recognized by all Herbartians in the theory of methods, though it finds no recognition in their classification of interests.
It must be granted, however, that Herbart’s classification is convenient, even if not especially scientific.
The empirical interest is the mental eagerness aroused by direct appeal to the senses, as by novel shapes, colors, sounds, odors, and the like. Its first stage is wonder, admiration, fear, awe. The child that drops his picture-book to chase a butterfly abandons one empirical interest for a stronger one. This form of interest is usually transient; unless it develops into a new kind of interest, it is soon abandoned for some other attraction. A primary teacher may catch but cannot hold the attention of a child by sensuous devices leading to nothing beyond themselves.