Purpose: In this study, the use of real environments in education and making students face real problems has been taken as a basis. The question "What is the relationship between the philosophical roots of authentic learning & geography education?" was determined as the problem status of this study. Research Methods: The method of this study was a document review. Accordingly, the philosophers selected by purposeful sampling within the educational sciences intellectual history, and their works were retrospectively examined, and the intellectual roots of authentic learning were investigated. Findings: The findings showed that authentic learning underwent an intellectual preparation process the roots of which date back to the 16th-century philosopher Erasmus. Erasmus, Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Frobel, Dewey, Vygotsky, and Piaget, respectively, followed and developed each other's views on this subject. The naturalist approach involved in the classical view within the philosophy of education; in other words, the use of real space in geography education was the main field where authentic learning developed. Implications for Research and Practice: Given that authentic learning, which is not so common in Turkey, is discussed in more studies and applications within the frame of this idea has been considered crucial concerning the development of geography education.