Answer by skyking for What is the purpose of the word 'self', in Python?

Is because by the way python is designed the alternatives would hardly work. Python is designed to allow methods or functions to be defined in a context where both implicit this (a-la Java/C++) or explicit @ (a-la ruby) wouldn't work. Let's have an example with the explicit approach with python conventions:

def fubar(x):
    self.x = x

class C:
    frob = fubar

Now the fubar function wouldn't work since it would assume that self is a global variable (and in frob as well). The alternative would be to execute method's with a replaced global scope (where self is the object).

The implicit approach would be

def fubar(x)
    myX = x

class C:
    frob = fubar

This would mean that myX would be interpreted as a local variable in fubar (and in frob as well). The alternative here would be to execute methods with a replaced local scope which is retained between calls, but that would remove the posibility of method local variables.

However the current situation works out well:

 def fubar(self, x)
     self.x = x

 class C:
     frob = fubar

here when called as a method frob will receive the object on which it's called via the self parameter, and fubar can still be called with an object as parameter and work the same (it is the same as C.frob I think).