The Book of Kohelet is “primarily a philosophical work, rather than a book of religion”

What is before us here is primarily a philosophical work, rather than a book of religion.  It seeks a rational understanding of human existence and a basis for ethics, through the application of human reason to observable data.

R.B.Y. Scott, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1965), 196.