Street-Fighting Logic: How to Argue with Grandmothers and Coffeeshop Philosophers

The street-fighting logician is a man of his times and a man of those times which precede his own. He is one who loves his intellect while being no intellectual elitist. He is no devout specialist or high talker. He must be an everyday man, a man of common life and common language. He must not think anything too beneath his acquaintance with, his practice in, and his employment of knowledge. He should gain just as much from the town drunk as he does from the town scholar. His inquiry and interest in those in the nursing home should not be overshadowed by his interest in those at the university. Between constant observation, civic involvement, and quiet retreats, the street-fighting logician revels in the tension found between the active life and the contemplative life. He is humbled there. Living and maturing in this tension yields the kinds of rewards which permeate all areas of life. It creates a different kind of person, rather than just a different kind of logic student.