Medical science stands accused of providing an incomplete understanding of health because it is supposedly founded on linearity, reductionism, and positivism. These criticisms misrepresent the scientific method. The alternatives offered by complexity theory, postmodernism, and qualitative research risk falling into the traps that the scientific method avoids. The hypotheticodeductive model of science provides both a coherent description of the growth of scientific knowledge and a prescription for the conduct of good science.