[FOM] Benenson

[Timothy Y. Chow]

> Introductory treatments of the notion of nonconstructive proof almost 
> always give as an example the proof that there is an irrational x 
> such that x raised to the power root 2 is rational (because root 2 to 
> the root 2 is either rational or not and ...). This proof is 
> attributed to 'Benenson'. Does anyone happen to know who Benenson is 
> or was? Googling the name gives the proof and various Benensons (e.g. 
> the founder of Amnesty International) but doesn't seem to associate 
> the proof with any particular Benenson.

The Google results for "benenson dummett" and "benenson philosophy" 
suggest that this may be Frederick C. Benenson, author of "Probability, 
Objectivity, and Evidence."

Tim