People in this stage are likely to be in one of two camps: Fed up with whatever idea they were keen on to begin with, or they have found problems with their ideas after going through the first three stages. This stage often ends with the person discovering something new that they would like to explore or developing new ideas to solve the problems they have found.
The first, or metaphoric stage is defined by unconditional love. This, in the case of a person studying physical cosmology, would be the case of a student being in awe of the heavens. This student would see the stars and the planets, not know anything about them, and yet love the concept of greatness represented by the heavens. In the case of history, the Greek thinkers can largely represent this stage. Although they were far ahead of their time, the Greeks still only had primitive instruments to measure where the stars and planets were, and based many of their theories on theology and other philosophy instead of quantifiable data. As did all of the cosmologists in the first stage, the Greeks were absolutely sure that the Earth must be still. Based on simple observations, this makes sense. It would seem to me, standing on solid ground, that the place where I am standing stays still and the cosmos revolve around my position. This concept also confirmed humanity's egotistic nature by suggesting that we must be the center of all things and that we are special.
Joining the Greek Philosophers in this stage are all of the cosmologists that lived before Copernicus. These thinkers and scientists upheld the Aristotelian ideal that we are the center of all things. To the European scientists, this reaffirmed their views of God, and their view that they were the only intelligent life in the cosmos. Therefore, in the minds of these thinkers, God must have created them and their planet as the center of all things. Holding on to these beliefs that were comfortable and that made sense on the surface held them in stage 1.