This Dialogue will focus on the study of altruism and compassion in Western science. The participants will address these topics from a highly multi-disciplinary perspective since altruism and compassion are clearly significant for both the social and life sciences. A historical perspective on the role of compassion in science and the bias in the study of negative rather positive psychological states in the behavioral sciences will first be considered. The role of altruism in evolutionary biology will be examined and its relevance to understanding human motivation will be discussed. The characteristics that determine whether people help other people in need will be the focus of another presentation. A related topic, and one central to the contemporary world situation, concerns the conditions that give rise to genocidal violence. The ingredients that are essential to positive socialization and the cultivation of altruism and compassion in children will also be examined. Finally, what is the relevance of altruistic motives to economic behavior? There is a class of economic problems in which selfish motives, assumed by most economics to underlie all significant economic behavior, are found to be self defeating. This meeting will bring together scholars in psychology, philosophy, economics and the history of science. The discussion each day will focus on relations between Western and Tibetan Buddhist understanding of concepts that are central to both traditions.