Michele Borrelli was born in 1947 in Acquappesa, Calabria.
At 16 years of age, after the death of his father, he moved to Germany
where he received the pedagogical formation and philosophy of the
Giessen School. He studied anthropology, Roman law studies,
political science and pedagogical science at Justus Liebig University,
Giessen passing the Staatsexamen für das Lehramt an Haupt- und
Realschulen (Justus Liebig-University, Giessen, Faculty: Didaktik
der Sozialwissenschaften) in 1972.
After the Staatsexamen, he took an MA - Master of Arts,
graduating with honours in 1974 followed by a PhD- Doctor of
Philosophy, graduating magna cum laude in 1978 (both at Giessen
University). His Master of Arts thesis was entitled:
Lernzielermittlung,-legitimation und –operationalisierung im Bereich
Politischer Didaktik zwischen Ideologie und Wissenschaft. It was
published in Kurt Gerhard Fischer (by), Politische Pädagogik zwischen
Pädagogik und Politik, Metzler, in 1976. His Doctor of Philosophy
thesis was entitled: Politische Bildung in Italien – Revolution und
Konterrevolution. It was published by Metzler, Stuttgart in 1979.
He has been Professor of the Didactics of Social Sciences, Historical
and Systematic Pedagogics and Intercultural Pedagogics at the Justus-Liebig
University in Giessen, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in
Frankfurt, the Bergische Gesamthochschule University in Wuppertal and
the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen/Nürnberg, organising and
coordinating theoretical and practical teacher training courses at
Giessen University, as well as after-school pedagogical/experimental
courses in Hessen (Germany) for the “Landeszentrale für Politische
Bildung” (Hessen), Germany. He also organised, coordinated and
administered cultural courses for Italian workers in Germany on behalf
of the Italian ACLI association for occupational training (Stuttgart,
Germany) as well as after-school courses in Austria.
In 1988, following his term as lecturer in Intercultural Pedagogics at
Nürnberg University, he returned to Calabria to take up the chair of
General Pedagogics at the University of Calabria. He continued to work
on projects of scientific study with academics in Germany (especially
philosophers, science theorists and teachers). Drawing on his almost
twenty years of study, teaching and research in Germany, he mapped a
theoretical framework to be used as common scientific ground and the
source of scientific exchange between intellectuals from various
different scientific specialisations and perspectives. The underlying
objective of his research was to trace the foundation of the social
sciences, of pedagogical science in particular.
One of the main areas that Michele Borrelli has explored is the
methodological approach to ontological and dialectic enquiry in modern
society and ultimately, dialectic pedagogical ontology (Pedagogia
come ontologia dialettica della società, Pellegrini, [Pedagogics: a
dialectic ontology of society], Cosenza 1998, 4th ed. republished in
2005).
His research into the foundation of the social sciences, which commenced
with the series entitled, Metodologia delle Scienze Sociali [the
methodology of the Social Sciences], a work reflecting the systems
theory of Niklas Luhmann and the pragmatic transcendentalism of
Karl-Otto Apel and in association with other leading German-speaking
exponents of contemporary philosophy: Hans Albert (Heidelberg
University), Peter Bieri (Free University of Berlin), Hermann Lübbe (Zürich
University), Gerard Radnitzky (Bochum University), Albrecht Wellmer
(Free University of Berlin), Manfred Frank (Tübingen University), Carl
Friedrich Gehtmann (University of Hessen), Hans-Peter Krüger (Potsdam
University), Jürgen Mittelstrass (Constance University), Herbert
Schnädelbach (Wilhelm von Humboldt University - Berlin), Wolfgang Welsch
(Jena University), Reiner Wiehl (Heidelberg University), also touched on
contemporary Italian philosophy, and again involved some of its leading
figures: Francesco Adorno (University of Florence), Enrico Berti
(University of Padova), Arrigo Colombo (University of Lecce), Franco
Crespi (University of Perugia), Adriano Fabris (University of Pisa),
Giorgio Penzo (University of Padova) and Emanuele Severino (University
of Venezia).
One of his key mentors was Kurt Gerhard Fischer, professor of the theory
of political education at Giessen University and extremely learned and
erudite social sciences scholar as well as expert of political teaching.
Michele Borrelli has written and edited more than thirty published
works, the majority of which are in German; more than 45 of his papers
have been published in the books of various authors (in German, Italian
and English) and more than 50 articles featured in both Italian and
foreign specialist journals (published in German, French, English,
Dutch, Turkish and Greek).
His philosophical theories regarding the foundation of intercultural
pedagogics have been published in Italian, German, English, French,
Dutch, Turkish and Greek; furthermore, they have been the object of much
in-depth discussion in foreign books and journals. Notable amongst his
most recent publications is the study carried out as part of the
European research project Kritik in der Pädagogik, published in
German, English and Italian.
In addition, he has translated, edited and presented to Italian
audiences the most recent essays of the German philosopher Karl-Otto
Apel, collating them in three volumes in accordance with the
philosopher's wishes: Karl-Otto Apel, Lezioni di Aachen e altri
scritti [the Aachen lessons and other papers], Pellegrini, Cosenza
2004, Karl-Otto Apel, Cambiamento di paradigma. La ricostruzione trascendentalermeneutica
della filosofia moderna [A change of paradigm. The transcendental
and hermeneutic reconstruction of modern philosophy], Pellegrini,
Cosenza 2005 and Karl-Otto Apel, Ermeneutica e filosofia
trascendentale in Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Gadamer, Apel [Transcendental
hermeneutics and philosophy in Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Gadamer, Apel],
Pellegrini, Cosenza 2006.
He wrote a volume on Kant (Lettere a Kant. La trasformazione apeliana
dell’etica kantiana) [Letters to Kant. Apel's transformation of
Kantian ethics], Pellegrini, Cosenza 2005) in which he pursues a
critical re-elaboration of Kantian philosophy from a pragmatic,
transcendental perspective based on Karl-Otto Apel's version of the
progression from the thinking self to the co-subject or intersubject and
from the separation-distinction between practical reasoning, theoretical
reasoning, and aesthetical reasoning to the combination of all three
types of reasoning in reasoning for argumentation.
He is a member of the «Internationaler Wissenschaftlicher Beirat des
Jahrbuch für Bildungs- und Erziehungsphilosophie» (International
Scientific Committee for the Annual Journal of Philosophy of Education
and Formation) (edited by Walter Bauer, Otto-von-Guericke-Magdeburg
University; Wilfried Lippitz, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen;
Winfried Marotzki, Otto-von-Guericke-Magdeburg University; Jörg Ruhloff,
Wuppertal University; Alfred Schäfer, Martin-Luther-University; Michael
Wimmer, Hamburg University; Christoph Wulf, Free University of Berlin).
He cooperates with Wuppertal University (where Professor Jörg Ruhloff is
chair of historical-systematic pedagogics) as part of the
Erasmus-Socrates programme (research into education and formation, and
the education and formation of teachers). He is a member of
international General Pedagogics research groups and has held seminars
and addressed international conventions abroad. He is a member of the
editorial staff of «Die Brücke Forum für Antirassistische Politik und
Kultur», Saarbrücken. He founded and directs a series of publications
concerning theoretical and practical pedagogics as well as the more
specialist areas of social sciences (from philosophy to the problems of
language, from sociology to the theory of knowledge and science, and
from pragmatic perspectives to hermeneutic discourses, and so forth). He
is also, amongst other things, president of the international Karl-Otto
Apel Centre of Philosophy.