understanding self

[bruce stockwell]

Using 'self' in classes seems pretty straight forward. My curiosity is 
why I have to use it. Shouldn't it be implied? If I create an instance 
of 'human' called 'bruce' and call the method 'blink' why do I have to 
pass bruce into the method e.g.

class human:
	...code
	def blink(self,times):
		for i in range(times):
			if self.eye_is_closed:
				self.eye_open()
				self.eye_close()
			else:
				self.eye_close()
			self.eye_open()
	def eye_open(self):
		...code
	def eye_close(self):
		...code
			

bruce = human()
bruce.blink(5)

blink is a method of bruce because bruce is an instance of human. 
Reading this silly code I can understand what is going on if self was 
not included. Can anyone enlighten me as to why we have self?

by the way..six months of python and I'm 10 times the programmer I was 
with vb


v/r
Bruce