Understanding the link between the quote of W.S. Anglin and Fermat last theorem

Question

I'm reading the last theorem of Fermat and about how Wiles found the proof of it (written by Simon Singh). In this book, a chapter starts with the following quote:

"Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigor should be a signal to the historians that the maps have been made, and the real explorers have gone elsewhere."

I have a hard time really understanding this quote directly. Does it mean that when something has been unsolvable for a long time, that we need to look to other ways of approaching the problem?

Hope someone can give some insights in this quote

Answer 1

WS Anglin, "Mathematics and History", Mathematical Intelligencer, v. 4, no. 4.

Anglin is commenting the view of historians of mathematics about rigour.

According to Anglin, there are "two extreme positions on rigour".

The first one, is the view that "rigour is the essence of mathematics. If it is not rigorous, it is not real mathematics".

For the second one, see the full paragraph includng the above quote :

The other extreme position is that rigour is the fossilization of true mathematics. Mathematics progresses, not via deduction, but via experimental science and artistic insight. Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigour should be a signal to the historian that the maps have been made, and the real explorers have gone elsewhere.