Recent years have seen the development of interest in the usefulness of qualitative methods in family practice research. This paper shows how the underlying concerns of family practice medicine parallel those of the qualitative research tradition. After contrasting the philosophical underpinnings of both quantitative and qualitative methods, we go on to describe the methodological commitments of qualitative research. We relate this emerging debate within family practice to that which has taken place in other disciplines, particularly that of education. We discuss the relative strengths of qualitative and quantitative methods, and argue that these two traditions have complementary contributions to make to the discipline of family practice medicine.