Science Fiction as a Test of Axioms Concerning Human Behavior

Kenneth L. Pike suggests a way to test axioms of human behavior: have an author attempt to write a science fiction story without drawing upon a given axiom. If the author can successfully write a story that does not draw upon the axiom either directly or indirectly, then that axiom is not an axiom fundamental to human behavior.

The first half of the article is intriguing, then it got too linguistically esoteric for me to understand. Still a good read.

Published in 1973 in Parma Eldalamberon, the journal of the Mythopoeic Linguistic Fellowship--a group that studies fantasy languages.