3. Is it logically possible for a cat to give birth to pups? Biologically impossible, doubtless (and hence empirically impossible) but logically possible. It is a fact of nature that like produces like, but there is no logical necessity about this But isn't anything that a cat gives birth to, by definition, a cat?" You need only think this through for a moment to see that it is false. Suppose that what the cat gave birth to barked, wagged its tail, had all the contours a dog, exhibited typical dog-behavior and was unhesitatingly identified by everybody as a dog. Would you still call it a cat? In such a situation no one would say that the offspring was a cat-rather, they would be astounded by the unusual phenomenon that a cat had produced, not another cat, but a dog