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Yes, it is possible for a function within a class to operate without the use of the self parameter if the function does not need to access or modify any instance variables. Such functions are called static methods and do not have access to the instance or the class itself. They are defined using the @staticmethod decorator. For example:

class MyClass:
    @staticmethod
    def my_static_method(a, b):
        return a + b

In the above example, the my_static_method function does not have the self parameter and can be called directly on the class without creating an instance of the class. For example:

result = MyClass.my_static_method(2, 3)
print(result) # Output: 5