hard-headed

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

hardheaded \hard"head`ed\, hard-headed \hard"-head`ed\, a.
   Having sound judgment; sagacious; shrewd; practical and
   pragmatic. -- {Hard"-head`ed*ness}, n.
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

73 Moby Thesaurus words for "hardheaded":
      balking, balky, bigoted, bulldogged, bulletheaded, bullheaded,
      case-hardened, dogged, dogmatic, down-to-earth, earthy, fanatic,
      hard, hard-boiled, headstrong, hoaxproof, intolerant,
      matter-of-fact, mulish, not born yesterday, obstinate, opinionated,
      overzealous, persevering, pertinacious, pigheaded, positivistic,
      practical, practical-minded, pragmatic, rational, realist,
      realistic, reasonable, restive, sane, scientific, scientistic,
      secular, self-willed, sensible, set, sober, sober-minded,
      sophisticated, sound, sound-thinking, stiff-necked,
      straight-thinking, strong-willed, strongheaded, stubborn, sulky,
      sullen, tenacious, tough-minded, uncooperative, uncullible,
      undeceivable, undeludable, undupable, unfoolable, ungullible,
      unhoaxable, unideal, unidealistic, unregenerate, unromantic,
      unseduceable, unsentimental, willful, wise, worldly