Creighton graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie College, Halifax, in 1887, and became a student at the foreign universities of Leipzig and Berlin.

From 1889 to 1892, Dean Creighton was an instructor in philosophy at Cornell, being advanced during the three following years to an associate professorship.

As an author, he was best known to students through his “Introductory Logic,” first published in 1898, which is widely employed as a college textbook.

He collaborated in the translation of "Wundt's Human and Animal Psychology," and "Paulsen's Kant - His Life and Philosophy."

He was early influenced by Kant, Bradley and Bosanquet, and later accepted some of the views of Windelband and Heinrich Rickert, without sharing all of their opinions.