Criticism of a popular argument for refusing to allow backward subjunctives conditionals, i.e. ones whose consequent pertains to a time earlier than that of the antecedent; and of accounts of such conditionals by Jackson and Davis. A tenable account of them is found to be nested within Lewis's analysis of forward subjunctives. Discussion of related issues concerning Lewis's notion of counterparts and of non-historical conditionals (’If it were a ruby, it would be red’).
Keywords: backward causation, backward subjunctive conditionals, conditionals, counterpart, Jackson, Lewis, subjunctive conditionals