Jacques Kriel studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Stellenbosch in the Republic of South Africa. After teaching philosophy for two years at the University of Fort Hare, he began medical studies at the medical school of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He specialized in internal medicine. In 1973, he was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Medicine of SA, and, in 1974, he obtained the degree Master of Medicine from the University of the Free State. In 1996, he was awarded the degree MA in Philosophy from the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) in Johannesburg. After occupying senior health administration posts in what is now the North West Province of the Republic of South Africa, he occupied the following positions: founding Rector of the University of the North West (1979-1982); Claude Harris Leon Professor of Medical Education and Director of the Centre for the Study of Medical Education at the University of the Witwatersrand (1983 to 1989); Academic Principal of Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg (1990 to 1992). From 1993 to 1997, he was consultant physician in the department of internal medicine of the Medical University of Southern Africa, and (for two years) Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Since 1998, he is Principal Physician and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at Tambo Memorial Hospital, a 500-bed regional hospital east of Johannesburg. The hospital is named after the late Oliver Tambo, long-time president of the African National Congress (ANC). Jacques Kriel has published in South African and international journals, and in collective volumes, on philosophy, theology, politics, education, and medicine. He co-authored a book with Willem Saayman of the Faculty of Theology of The University of South Africa, entitled AIDS: The Leprosy of Our Time? Towards a Christian Response to Aids in Southern and Central Africa. He has published two monographs, the first on medical education, entitled Removing Medicine's Cartesian Mask: The Problem of Humanising Medical Education. The second, on the philosophy of medicine, is called Viagra and the Mind-Body Problem: Philosophical Implications of a Pharmaceutical Innovation.