> Another response from a different source. Having to include self as a method argument means that those are not methods, but static functions.

This declaration makes no sense.

> This really means there isn't precisely methods at all

Of course there is:

    >>> class Foo(object):
    ...     def bar(self): return 42
    ... 
    >>> type(Foo().bar)
    <type 'instancemethod'>
    >>> m = Foo().bar
    >>> m()
    42

> If there is a valid reason for this, it would go a long way in explaining away one of the major reasons I dislike python.

I don't know (and don't really care) if you'll consider it "a valid reason", but here's GvR's reasoning: http://neopythonic.blogspot.be/2008/10/why-explicit-self-has...