What s the problem with ontic The use of ontic is entirely correct Commonly ontic is simply an adjective synonymous with ontological there is nothing grammatically fishy about it Its use here is more important than mere grammar however since Heidegger draws a distinction between the ontic which designates beings in their everyday thisness and thatness and the ontological which designates any relation to being as such and in a universal sense The distinction between ontic and ontological mirrors his distinction between being and the being of beings