http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/31.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net
i assume current 40k imperium would be entirely against any type of rational thinking/philosophy among its populace since having an open mind could be dangerous, heretical especially when your dealing with Chaos? would this be accurate

but what about Big Empy its self]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7198544.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7198544.page GMT
See the iterators like Sindermann in the first HH books for example.

Of course the moment your thoughts and reasoning shifts away from the supposedly good of the Imperium you are basically dead.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7198964.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7198964.page GMT "Knowledge is power, guard it well."
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded."
"To Question is to doubt."
So no, the Imperium is far from big on philosophy. The Imperium, built entirely on religious dogma, has little need for critical thinking and philosophers could easily turn into traitors and heretics. In fact, philosophers probably already are heretics and traitors.
I don't think the Emperor himself was really fond of criticism either, so he probably discouraged it as well. The Emperor and Imperium have always had a very strong 'just follow orders without asking questions, asking questions is dangerous' attitude.
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Gideon Ravenor wrote a book that was a philosophical treatise on the veneration of the Emperor and adherence to the Imperial Cult as a way to resist the temptations of Chaos. This book, "The Spheres of Longing", is quoted several times in the Gaunt's Ghosts series.

So it is not that the Imperium does not permit philosophy, but it only permits the right kind of philosophy. Rational thinking, too, is just fine... but you have to remember that the people of M40 live in a galaxy where daemons, gods, magic and all that sort of thing are known to exist and can be demonstrably proven to exist. While there might be atheists in the Imperium, those types of atheists are either inexperienced with the horrors of the galaxy, or stupid.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7224617.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614891/7224617.page GMT