The right state of things would be free of it: neither a system nor a contradiction" (Negative Dialectics).
Gouldner, however, was not the first sociologist to be critical of objective knowledge of society; see, for example, Adorno's Negative Dialectics.
In Negative Dialectics, Adorno believed this tended towards progress by stimulating the possibility of class conflict.
Negative Dialectics.
As he put it at the beginning of his Negative Dialectics (1966), philosophy is still necessary because the time to realise it was missed.
Negative Dialectics (1966)
Negative Dialectics at efn.org.
Andrew Coates followed up on this exchange on July 12, 2011, with a discussion of "Negative Dialectics."
Dennis Redmond's updated translation of Negative Dialectics, with commentary.
Origin of Negative Dialectics.