the emphasis in functional programming issomewhat tautologouslyon calling functions python actually gives us several different ways to create functionsor at least something very function-like ( that can be calledthey areregular functions created with def and given name at definition time anonymous functions created with lambda instances of classes that define __call()__ method closures returned by function factories static methods of instanceseither via the @staticmethod decorator or via the class __dict__ generator functions this list is probably not exhaustivebut it gives sense of the numerous slightly different ways one can create something callable of coursea plain method of class instance is also callablebut one generally uses those where the emphasis is on accessing and modifying mutable state python is multiple paradigm languagebut it has an emphasis on object-oriented styles when one defines classit is generally to generate instances meant as containers for data that change as one calls methods of the class this style is in some ways opposite to functional programming approachwhich emphasizes immutability and pure functions