Thomas Tymoczko

{{Short description|American philosopher and mathematician}}

A. Thomas Tymoczko (September 1, 1943{{spaced ndash}}August 8, 1996) was a philosopher specializing in logic and the philosophy of mathematics. He taught at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1971 until his death from stomach cancer in 1996, aged 52.{{cite web|title=In Memoriam|url=https://www.smith.edu/acamedia/Archive96-97/aca090396.html|website=AcaMedia|publisher=Smith College|date=September 3, 1996}}{{cite journal | last=Anellis | first=Irving H. | authorlink=Irving Anellis| title= In Memoriam: Thomas Tymoczko | journal=Modern Logic | volume=7 | issue=1 | year=1997 | issn= 1943-7390 | pages=82–83|url=https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.rml/1204900346}}

His publications include New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics, an edited collection of essays for which he wrote individual introductions, and Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern Logic, co-authored by Jim Henle. In addition, he published a number of philosophical articles, such as "The Four-Color Problem and its Philosophical Significance", which argues that the increasing use of computers is changing the nature of mathematical proof.

He is considered a member of the fallibilist school in philosophy of mathematics. Philip Kitcher dubbed this school the "maverick" tradition in the philosophy of mathematics. (Paul Ernest){{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

He completed an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1965, and his PhD from the same university in 1972.