Full Idea
Hermarchus said that animal killing is justified by considerations of human safety and nourishment and by animals' inability to form contractual relations of justice with us.
Gist of Idea
Animals are dangerous and nourishing, and can't form contracts of justice
Source
report of Hermarchus (fragments/reports [c.270 BCE]) by David A. Sedley - Hermarchus
Book Reference
'Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy', ed/tr. Zeyl,Donald J. [Fitzroy Dearborn 1997], p.263
A Reaction
Could the last argument be used to justify torturing animals? Or could we eat a human who was too brain-damaged to form contracts?