Three potentially useful perspectives for the scientific development of human communication theory are the law model, the systems approach, and the rules paradigm. It is the purpose of this paper to indicate the utility of the systems approach. The first section of this paper provides a brief account of the systems view of the world. Outlined in the second section are the logical and empirical requirements of systems theory in four variations: open systems, closed systems, cybernetics, and structural-functionalism. A brief example of how to conceptualize a communication system from a cybernetic perspective is presented in section three. In section four, the relationship among the forms of knowledge offered by the behavioral, actional, and systems frameworks are examined. The paper concludes with a discussion of the epistemic framework to which the systems theory leads. (RB)