He defines his identity ("I am a retributivist") according to philosophical stance rather than to simply describe his beliefs ("I ascribe to retributivism").
That could also just be you reading way to much into a certain choice of words. I use the phrase »I am a XYZ« with all kind of values for XYZ all the time - human, American, software developer, atheist, heavy metal fan, ... In none of the cases - except maybe for human - do I want to imply that XYZ defines my identity or even dominates my identity.
That could also just be you reading way to much into a certain choice of words. I use the phrase »I am a XYZ« with all kind of values for XYZ all the time - human, American, software developer, atheist, heavy metal fan, ... In none of the cases - except maybe for human - do I want to imply that XYZ defines my identity or even dominates my identity.