Soft matter science is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, and materials science. It encompasses colloids, polymers, and liquid crystals as well as rapidly emerging topics such as metamaterials, memory formation and learning in matter, bioactive systems, and artificial life. This textbook introduces key phenomena and concepts in soft matter from a modern perspective, marrying established knowledge with the latest developments and applications. The presentation integrates statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, and hydrodynamic approaches, emphasizing conservation laws and broken symmetries as guiding principles while paying attention to computational and machine learning advances.