Ecclesiastes 1:17

"And. set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly;. realized that this also is striving after wind."

"to know wisdom" -Like many people, Solomon first tried to find meaning in intellectual pursuits. Will stimulation of the mind, learning, acquiring knowledge bring happiness? And when Solomon says, "I set my mind", he is saying, "I threw myself into this endeavor".

"madness and folly" -Solomon then explored the world of the irrational.. think many of us tried this during some period in our life. We thought, "Maybe the real truth is found in contradictions or irrational statements. Maybe the truth isn't supposed to make any sense!" "It is. deliberate flight from rationality, to get al some secret of life to which reason (or conventional thinking) may be blocking the way….. Here we are brought very near to our own times with their cult of the irrational in its various forms, from romanticism down to the addict's craving for strange states of consciousness; and down still further into the nihilism which cultivates the ugly, the obscene and the absurd" (Kidner p. 31).

"I realized also" -at least Solomon was honest. The world is filled with people that never wake up and realize that their pursuit has failed and they have reached the end of the line. Some people stubbornly cling to things which have never really brought them any enjoyment. Solomon was honest enough to realize, "This isn't it".