What was the basic shortcoming of the Greek philosophers approach to studying the material world?

The basic shortcoming of the Greek philosophers approach to studying the material world is that they spent their time talking and debating about nature, but did no actual exploration or some did only a little bit of an actual investigation.

There are a vast number of ideas that these Greek philosophers talked about and debated on. However, these ideas were not resolved because none of them made any effort of gathering facts and actual observations to either support or debunk the ideas being discussed.