He was born in September 1962, Tosya/Kastamonu. He completed his primary education in Tosya and secondary education in Kastamonu Imam-Hatip High School (1980). In the same year, he graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Theology (1986). He was appointed as a research assistant to the Department of History of Turkish-Islamic Thought, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University (1992) while he was working on his thesis titled ‘Averroes and his Philosophy’ in the PhD programme of Istanbul University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of History of Turkish-Islamic Thought. Sarıoğlu received his PhD degree on 09 March 1994 and was appointed as Assistant Professor in the same department (1995). Although he was promoted to Associate Professor in November 1998, as a result of years of legal struggle, he was appointed as Associate Professor in December 2004 and then became Professor in February 2007. He assumed administrative duties as Deputy Head of the Department of Philosophy, Member of the Faculty Board, Head of the Department of History of Turkish-Islamic Thought and Director of the Centre for Islamic Studies. His academic studies, which started with research on the classical period of Islamic thought, continue by focusing on classical logic, epistemology, religion-philosophy-science relations and ethics. Within the scope of the programme to support faculty members of the Council of Higher Education, he conducted research in the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University for three months in 2012. He was elected as a full member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences in June 2012 and as a member of the Academy Council in December 2012 and served two terms until December 2018.

Sarıoğlu worked as Vice Rector, Dean of the Faculty of Theology (founding), Director of Uzunköprü School of Applied Sciences, Interuniversity Council Trakya University Representative Member and ÖSYM Edirne Examination Coordinator at Trakya University, where he was appointed in October 2012 in accordance with 2547/40-b. Sarıoğlu, who is a faculty member of Istanbul University Faculty of Letters, Department of Philosophy, worked at Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Letters and İnönü University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy for three semesters between March 2017-February 2020 within the scope of 2547/40-b. He is currently working in the Department of Philosophy at ASBU.