The Basic Humor Process: A Cognitive-Shift Theory and the Case Against Incongruity Book

	Preface
Pt. 1	Preliminaries	1
Ch. 1	The mystery of humor and sundry further matters	3
Ch. 2	The fundamental question of humor theory	28
Pt. 2	Theory L and reason to conclude it is true	35
Ch. 3	Theory L	37
Ch. 4	The laughter of humor, relaxation, and pleasure	50
Ch. 5	The inapplicability of standard criticisms of "relief" theories	60
Ch. 6	The explanatory power of theory L	68
Pt. 3	Incongruity theory and reason to conclude it is unsound	99
Ch. 7	Incongruity theory and the concept of incongruity	101
Ch. 8	First probe of incongruity theory: two complementary arguments	126
Ch. 9	Second probe of incongruity theory: its collapse into cognitive-shift theory	136
Ch. 10	Third probe of incongruity theory: its lack of explanatory power	154
Ch. 11	Fourth probe of incongruity theory: sundry arguments and points	202
Pt. 4	Further development	219
Ch. 12	Kant and Koestler on humor	221
Ch. 13	The ultimate incongruity thesis and concluding reflections	231
	Summary of the case for theory L	237
	References	239
	Permissions	243
	Index	247