journal of religion in europe 8 (2015) 304-319 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/18748929-00804004 brill.com/jre Journal of Re ligion in Europe The Disenchantment of Problems: Musings on a Cognitive Turn in Intellectual History Egil Asprem University of California Santa Barbara easprem@gmail.com Abstract This article responds to Hans Kippenberg's, Willem Drees's, and Ann Taves's commen- taries on my book, The Problem of Disenchantment. It presents an overview of the key arguments of the book, clarifies its use of Problemgeschichte to reconceptualize Weber's notion of disenchantment, and discusses issues in the history and philosophy of science and religion. Finally, it elaborates on the use of recent cognitive theory in intellectual history. In particular, it argues that work in event cognition can help us reframe Weber's interpretive sociology and deepen the principle of methodological individualism. This helps us get a better view of what the ‘problems’ of Problemgeschichte really are, how they emerge, and why some of them may reach broader significance. Keywords disenchantment – Max Weber – problem history – religion and science – method and theory in the study of religion – methodological individualism – cognitive science – event cognition Introduction: From Process to Problem Writing The Problem of Disenchantment has taught me many lessons about the challenges of taking on a subject matter that transcends disciplinary borders. The questions that interested me belonged to an interdisciplinary space situ- ated somewhere between intellectual history, the history and philosophy of science, and the study of religion and esotericism. So I adopted what I came to call the ‘endoxic principle’: I talked to colleagues in other disciplines, went to