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.