This post is related to an old post here.
Broadly speaking, there are three kinds of empirical science, which correspond to three views of nature.
(1) The ancient view of empirical science is represented by Aristotle, which includes the careful observation of undisturbed nature. Motion, for example, meant natural motion, not “violent” motion in which there is a change of the natural course of things. Experimentation was not considered a way to understand undisturbed nature.
(2) The early modern view of empirical science includes experimentation because nature is understood to include what happens after an intervention in the course of nature. These experiments allowed early modern scientists to isolate causal factors in nature. The human observer was not considered part of any experiment.
(3) The late modern view of empirical science includes the observer as part of nature. The distinction between natural and artificial is discarded. The origin and nature of humans is included in his view of nature. Empirical science covers all aspects of human beings that can be observed. The scientist has a double life in which they both are and are not the object of science.
The second kind of empirical science is superior because it goes beyond the undisturbed nature of the first kind and does not include the contradiction at the heart of the third kind.